EW THRILLS 
M OLD CHINA 




j 




Book i-ij- 3 6 -- 

Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 




Charlotte E. Hawes at Home 
Wei Hsien, China 



NEW THRILLS 

IN 

OLD CHINA 



By 

CHARLOTTE E. HAWES 

Presbyterian Missionary , Wei Hsien y 
Shantung, China 



ILLUSTRATED 






HODDER & STOUGHTON 

NEW YORK 

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 






Copyright, IQ13 
By George H. Doran Company 



** 



©CI.A343632 



TO 

"Loyal Hearts and True" 

who love and support 

God's work in China 

and "Seek first the Kingdom of God" 

throughout the world 

C. E. H. 



INTRODUCTION 

Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, 

Who have faith in God and nature, 

Who believe that in all ages, 

Every human heart is human. 

That in even savage bosoms 

There are longings, yearnings, strivings 

For the good they comprehend not; 

That the feeble hands and helpless, 

Groping blindly in the darkness, 

Touch God's right hand in that darkness 

And are lifted up and strengthened ; 

Listen to this simple story, 

To this song from Wei Hsien, China." 



CONTENTS 



I. 

II. 
III. 
IV. 

V. 
VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 
XII. 



XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 



PAGE 

Honour Thy Father and Thy 

Mother 15 

Early Life and Education . . 21 

Call to China 25 

Going to China 3° 

Going to Wei Hsien 34 

First Sight of Wei Hsien Mis- 
sion 38 

Wei Hsien Mission 40 

Learning the Language ... 48 

News from Home 54 

Delights of Country Work in 

China 60 

The Boxer War 71 

Boxer Riots at Wei Hsien ... 87 

Miss Hawes' Letter .... 90 

Rev. F. H. Chalfant's Letter . 99 

Hazardous Journey to the Coast 109 

Paotingfu Martyrs 117 

Return to America 123 

Missionary Work at Home . . 126 

Return to China 139 

Return to Wei Hsien .... 148 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

PAGE 

XIX. The Plague! Under Quaran- 
tine! 157 

XX. The Chinese Revolution . . . 162 
XXI. How the Revolution Affected 

Missions in Shantung . . . 186 
XXII. The Chinese Revolution — The 

Most Wonderful in History . 202 

XXIII. The Revolutionary Outbreak 

in Si-An-Fu 218 

XXIV. Anniversary Day of the Repub- 

lic of China 227 

XXV. Moral Phases and Outlook of 

the Revolution 243 

XXVI. The China Propaganda . . . 246 
APPENDIX. A Brief Narrative of the 

Chinese Revolution .... 255 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Charlotte E. Hawes at Home, 

Wei Hsien, China . Frontispiece ^ 

FACING 
PAGE 

Dr. Hunter Corbett in His Shenza ... 40 s 
The House Where Miss Hawes Taught Bible 

Class Before the Boxer Riots .... 54 S 
Ch'un Mei and Her Twenty Christian Schol- 
ars 58 1/ 

Gate Where the Mob Entered Wei Hsien 

Mission, June 25th, 1900 94 1/ 

Reverend F. H. Chalfant, D.D., Hero of June 

25th, 1900, Wei Hsien, China .... 102 v 
Ruins of Reverend F. H. Chalfant's House 

at Wei Hsien After Boxer Riots . . . 108 y - 
A Fat Sheep Presented to the Missionaries by 

Yuan Shih K'ai as a Good-Will Offering 108^ 
Miss Hawes and Helpers at Tengchow . . 146 V 
One of Miss Hawes' Country- Village Bible 

Classes 150 ^ 

The Presbyterian Chapel, Wei Hsien, China 156 ^ 
Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Chinese Patriot . . . . 174 ^ 
Sweet Girl Graduates, High School, Wei 

Hsien, China 186 ^ 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 



The Graduating Class of Shantung Univer- 
sity, Wei Hsien, China 190 v 

Yuan Shih K'ai, President of the Chinese Re- 
public 202 v 

Reverend George F. Fitch, D.D., Founder of 
Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai, 
China 248^ 

Map of China Presbyterian Missions, Wei 
Hsien Mission, 5, Shantung Province . . 256 v 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 



CHAPTER I 
"HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER" 

PREACH for Christ! Live for Christ! 
Be ready to die for Christ ! " These 
were my father's dying words to his el- 
ders, as they stood around his bed, and then, 
whispering to my mother, " All is bright," his 
pure spirit passed away. He had " fought a 
good fight," and had " finished his course," and, 
like Paul, he had won the crown of righteous- 
ness that was laid up for him. My life was just 
beginning as his was closing, but I thank God for 
the precious heritage of my godly father, and the 
guidance and comfort of my brave, good mother, 
before whose fragrant memory my soul finds 
great comfort. A great pity moves my heart for 
those in heathen countries, who never had the 
backing of such godly ancestry as mine, and who 
bow in worship at the graves of those poor 
heathen parents who knew not God. Lacking 
the true teaching that was mine from earliest 
years, they blindly grope about, unconsciously 
crying : " Oh, that I knew where I might find 
Him ; that I might come even to His seat ! " 

15 



16 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

With the hope that some may be led to help 
the Chinese people to find God, I write this story 
of my life and work, including our escape from 
the Boxers, and experiences during the recent 
Revolution. 

My father, Rev. Lowman Prince Hawes, was 
born in Maysville, Kentucky, October 5th, 1825. 
He and his little brother and sister, John and 
Margaret, were left orphans in their early child- 
hood. Their father, Lowman Locke Hawes, was 
of English descent; graduated from Yale Col- 
lege in 18 14, practised law in Maysville, Ken- 
tucky, where he married Charlotte Brown, the 
gentle daughter of Major John Brown, who 
came to America in 1798 from Belfast, Ireland, 
during the Irish Rebellion, and settled on an es- 
tate near Maysville. 

My father was of a very gentle disposition, 
and his sorrows caused him to devote himself to 
his books and look upon life in a serious way, 
although he was only seven years of age when 
his parents died. The little orphans had an ex- 
cellent guardian in Judge Richard Collins, and 
spent their early years in his home at Maysville. 
My father worked bravely away at his Latin 
grammar and prepared himself for Centre Col- 
lege, at Danville, Kentucky. He entered college 
in the middle of the sophomore year; graduated 
at seventeen years of age, with the highest hon- 
ours of his class, in 1842. His parents did not 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 17 

live to listen to his valedictory oration, but he 
honored his God, and, cherishing no bitter or re- 
bellious feelings, consecrated his life to Christ, 
and humbly accepted His will in all things. He 
entered the Western Theological Seminary in 
Allegheny, where he graduated in 1846, and was 
licensed to preach by the Allegheny Presbytery. 
He supplied the Second Presbyterian Church, in 
Baltimore, Maryland, for six months. At the 
same time, my mother, a bright young woman, 
of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was teaching in the 
Third Ward School in Pittsburgh, and charming 
with her sweet voice and happy disposition her 
many friends and admirers, both in social and 
church life. She was the leading soprano singer 
in the choir of the Second Presbyterian Church 
in Pittsburgh, and for some years in St. An- 
drew's Episcopal Church, where she was pre- 
sented one Christmas morning with a handsome 
purple velvet portfolio and ten dollars in gold. 
In later years she laughingly said she was 
thus the " first paid soprano in Pittsburg.'' 
Fifty Presbyterian ministers were present at 
my mother's wedding, for she was popular 
with my father's classmates, and they all 
came to the wedding. Dr. James B. Alli- 
son, late editor of the Presbyterian Banner, 
was best man. The ceremony was performed by 
her mother's brother, Rev. Alexander T. M' Gill, 
D. D., LL.D., late professor in the Princeton 



18 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

Theological Seminary. My father's first call was 
to the church at Concord, near Pittsburgh, and 
read as follows : " Two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars a year to keep you from all worldly care." 
It was well that things were cheap before the 
war, and my happy parents set up housekeeping 
with very little expense. Her brother, William 
W. Wilson, a jeweller, presented them with silver 
for their table, and her brother, John, furnished 
them with chairs and tables, as he was a "cabi- 
net-maker". When they sat down to their first 
meal in their modest little country home, they 
were so happy, and, with a satisfied smile, my 
father said : " This is the first meal I have ever 
sat down to in my own home! " The little or- 
phan boy had his reward at last after his long, 
lonely years of study and perseverance. 

The church at Huntingdon, Pa., called my 
father in 1850, and, during his pastorate there, in 
1854, he went abroad for his health, the means 
being provided by his cousin, Judge Horace 
Hawes, of San Francisco, California. Return- 
ing, he was appointed professor of Greek and 
Latin in Carroll College, at Waukesha, Wiscon- 
sin, and supplied the Presbyterian Church there. 
His last charge was at Madison, Indiana, where 
I was born, and where he died of fever at thirty- 
five years of age. His last sermon was preached 
from the text, " To depart and be with Christ, 
which is far better." 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 19 

The following is quoted from the " Encyclo- 
pedia of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., 
including the Northern and Southern Assem- 
blies," by Rev. Alfred Nevin, D. D., LL.D.; 
Managing Editor, D. R. B. Nevin, A. M. : 

" Rev. Lowman Hawes labored at Hunting- 
don, Pa., and then at Beloit and Waukesha, Wis- 
consin, with marked success, and then was pastor 
of the First Presbyterian Church, at Madison, 
Indiana, from 1857 until his death, in 186 1. In 
all the relations of life he was consistent and 
exemplary ; in the pulpit he was able, earnest and 
eloquent. Had he possessed a strong body and 
a fine voice, the rich thought, the classic beauty 
of his style, the impassioned glow of his emo- 
tions would have made him a famous preacher, 
hardly surpassed by any of his age." 

On my return from China, in 1900, as I trav- 
elled through various presbyteries, especially in 
places where my father had preached so faithfully 
for the God he loved, I felt the fragrance of his 
sweet memory coming down all through the 
years, so many were the expressions of love for 
him and for my mother. Everyone spoke of 
her sweet voice. From my earliest years, I re- 
member her singing in the early morning, and 
laughing cheerfully, although she had trials and 
difficulties in rearing her family of five children 
after my father's death, which would have caused 
any other widow to sit and weep. Plucky and 



20 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

brave in spirit, and healthy in mind and body, she 
faced the future with a practical view, and, al- 
though urged to remain by the kind friends in 
Madison, she decided to remove to Washington, 
Pa., where there were good schools and healthful 
climate. So we travelled on the old " Hempfield 
Railroad " to Washington, Pa., and there were 
kind friends to welcome her. Reverend Dr. and 
Mrs. James I. Brownson, and Elder and Mrs. 
Colin Reed, of the First Presbyterian Church. 
They took her to their hearts and into the church 
and Sabbath School, and there we found our 
home. My mother's noble example has helped 
me over many a seeming hard place in China, 
when I have thought of her plucky, independent 
way of getting along, and winning everybody's 
love and respect by always being bright and 
keeping herself and children dainty and nice, in 
spite of her slender means. 



CHAPTER II 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION 

MY earliest recollections are in Washing- 
ton, of course, picking yellow dande- 
lions in the college campus, and play- 
ing with my sisters and brother. Then the day 
came alas! when I must go to school. Well do 
I remember clinging with both hands to the table 
leg or the machine stand every morning, and my 
mother pulling me away to go to Miss Martha 
Grayson's school; and my poor sister Anna's lit- 
tle face all red with mortification as she led her 
bawling sister down the street. One day Miss 
Grayson, in despair, came to our house, and told 
my mother if she would let her whip me, she 
was sure she could make a good girl of me. She 
said that I had such a triumphant look when I 
had " trapped " my sister in class, " which 
showed a wrong spirit," said dear Miss Gray- 
son, shaking the little curls around her face. 
But my mother couldn't stand it to have her 
baby whipped, much as she knew I deserved it, 
so she took me out of school, and that pleased 

21 



22 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

me very much. Then, one day, along came Miss 
Priscilla Miller, who gave me a big old-fash- 
ioned penny, and asked me if I would not " like 
to go to her school for little girls and boys." I 
said " Yes," for I thought she was so nice. From 
that time, little stubborn " Lottie " never had any 
trouble about school. I never had the intense 
desire for study that possessed my parents, but 
I had enough of my Scotch-Irish ancestry in me 
to stubbornly stick to my lessons, and so passed 
through the grammar schools in the places where 
we lived, and, later on, graduated in 1877 ^om 
the Pittsburg Central High School. 

During my High School course, I made my 
home on Mt. Washington with my sister and her 
husband, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Tassey, to whom I 
owe much for their kindness and help in my 
education. My mother and the rest of my fam- 
ily were then living in Sewickley, Pa. The news 
came to me of my dear sister Anna's confession 
of faith in Christ and uniting with the church. 
This was my playmate sister, the patient, pretty 
little maiden who had first led me crying to 
school, and now she was leading me to think of 
Christ. The Holy Spirit came to me, convicting 
me of my stubborn sins, and my pride gave way, 
and Christ received me as His willing child. So, 
with a dozen others, I stood before the old pul- 
pit in the little church on Mt. Washington on 
January 24th, 1874, and was received into mem- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 23 

bership, to the joy of my pastor, Rev. P. S. Jen- 
nings, and my family. 

It was also my dear sister Anna who care- 
fully rolled the neat edges of the tarletan ruf- 
fles of my beautiful white graduating dress, 
which I wore that hot June night at our Com- 
mencement in the Pittsburg Opera House, and 
read my essay on the "Historical Associations 
of Pittsburg." How fine it was when I could 
make my bow and turn carefully around so that 
lovely train, my first, would sweep gracefully, 
and then sit down with my classmates and re- 
ceive the pretty bouquets from kind friends, and 
my diploma! It was a happy time for us all, 
for while we always thought there never was 
such a choice class graduated from the High 
School as our class of 'jj, yet I think we were 
all glad to feel we were through the drudgery 
of preparation, and welcomed the glorious op- 
portunities before us of doing something to 
make life sweet for our dear ones, and lighten 
their burdens by helping ourselves. People used 
to tell me : " Your school days are your best 
days," but I never believed it, because of the 
daily grind of getting hard lessons, and because 
the " best days " came afterwards in the joy of 
having a part in life and the hope of helping to 
make the world a little better for others, and 
perhaps to win some to love the Lord who hath 
" so loved us." 



24 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

After my graduation, I taught school for a 
time in a country school, and in Mr. John Way's 
academy at Sewickley; also helped my brother, 
Rev. Edward P. Hawes, in his " Ingleside 
Academy," which he established at M'Donald, 
Pa., but as school-teaching was not my forte, I 
privately mastered a system of shorthand, and 
made practical use of that. For seven years I 
was a stenographer, taking dictation first from 
my brother-in-law, Col. John I. Nevin, editor 
of the Pittsburg Leader, and later in the cor- 
respondence office of the firm of P. Duff & Sons, 
Pittsburg. I humbly thank God for the lessons 
of patience and careful system in work which 
these varied experiences gave me, and I thank 
Him for the discipline of His guiding hand, and 
the many kind good friends He gave me all 
along the way. 



CHAPTER III 

CALL TO CHINA 

" Lift up Your Eyes and Look on the Fields ! " 

THE evening of my dear mother's life 
drew near, and giving up my office 
work, I spent many precious hours with 
her in my sister's home, until one sad night, 
June 1 2th, 1894, the summons came, and with 
one glad, rapt look of joy, she saw her Saviour 
coming to meet her and passed away, breathing 
her last in my arms. The world does not con- 
tain a love like a mother's love, and to this day 
my heart goes out in yearning for my sweet 
mother. Miss Janie Rea, of East Liberty, and 
I went, just after this, to Northfield, Mass., 
where we both found comfort and a rich bless- 
ing in attending the Meetings held by that noble 
servant of God, Mr. Dwight L. Moody. Then, 
one cold winter day, when the snow was all 
over the ground, at a little foreign mission meet- 
ing, held in the parlor of the First Presbyterian 
Church, Pittsburg, Mrs. Frank H. Chalfant, 
who had spent eight years in China, told us of 

25 



26 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

her work, and the need for more workers in 
that far-off land. Not a thought of the needs 
of distant China came to me personally, as I 
sat by the leaflet table, selling missionary tracts 
to the ladies after the meeting, and taking their 
subscriptions to Woman's Work, etc., but sud- 
denly there appeared before me the smiling 
faces of our returned missionary and Mrs. Mun- 
son, of the Park Avenue Church, who intro- 
duced her to me. 

" Oh, I am very glad to meet you, Mrs. Chal- 
fant," said I. 

" Perhaps you won't be so glad," Mrs. Mun- 
son said, " when you find out what she wants? " 

Not in the least suspecting her designs, I 
looked up in her face, asking : " Why, what do 
you want, Mrs Chalfant?" 

She replied quietly : " I want you." 

Amazed, I asked : " Oh, what do you want 
of me?" 

And then, " Why, I want you to go to China ! " 

If she had hit me in the face, I could not have 
been more surprised and stunned, but when she 
said : " Promise me you will pray over it," and 
was gone, these words came to me : " Ye have 
not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, that ye 
should go." I had not sought this call, but the 
Lord in His great condescension sent His mes- 
senger to me, and I could not shake off the con- 
viction that I dare not be " disobedient to the 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 9X 

heavenly vision." So, after much prayer and 
consultation with my dear family, the decision 
was made, and " Peace which passeth all under- 
standing with gladness filled my soul." Some 
years before this, my pastor, Rev. Isaac Hays, 
asked me to teach the little children of the 
" Home for the Friendless " on Sabbath after- 
noons, and the same peace was mine then ; for it 
is indeed a joy to feel that God honors us with 
a sacred trust. 

There was a nursery in connection with the 
" Home for the Friendless," and one day I 
persuaded our former neighbour, Mrs. H., of 
Sewickley, to come and see a sweet baby girl 
there, who had such beautiful brown eyes and 
curly brown hair, and had been abandoned by 
her parents to be given to anyone who would 
take her. Mrs. H. was advised by a neighbor 
to "Let the child alone," telling her "How 
much work she would make," etc. But Mrs. H. 
and her good husband had no children of their 
own, and they had a good home and plenty of 
means, and kind hearts, and they took the Christ 
Child in when they opened their arms to this 
little waif, and " Bessie is worth her weight in 
gold " was always their word with a bright 
smile. The inspector from the " Home " came 
one day, according to custom, to investigate if 
the child was properly cared for, and when he 
saw happy little Bessie playing beside her new 



28 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

mother, who was making pies for dinner, his 
eyes filled with tears at the picture of content- 
ment, and he only said : " It is all right. No 
need to ask any questions." But the parents 
lost no time in adopting their precious baby ac- 
cording to law, and so crowned their lives with 
the glory of the highest form of mission work. 
" Feed My Lambs," says Jesus. And, dear 
friends, if you should receive a call to take a 
little child to cherish, or to go on Christ's er- 
rands, whether to the city slums or to those 
across the seas in heathen lands, " Away on the 
mountains, cold and bare, away from the tender 
Shepherd's care," listen to that Voice, rise up 
in God's strength, and for Christ's dear sake, 
GO! Accept the call, and no words can de- 
scribe the peace which shall be yours, flowing 
into your soul like a river. It will help you to 
bear the separation from all who are dear to 
you, and Christ Himself stands so near when 
friends feel the pain of saying " Good-bye," 
and you suffer with them. He left His home. 
He left His loving Father. He gave up His 
glory. He came to this earth a foreign mis- 
sionary to us, and He was rejected, He was 
despised, He was crucified! He loved us, and 
gave His life for us. Not that we loved Him, 
but that He loved us ! Shall we deny Him, who 
is praying for us before the throne, who has 
prepared a place for us, "Whose name is above 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 29 

every name." What is there so precious to you 
that you cannot give up to follow Him and 
reach Heaven's joys? " There is no other name 
under Heaven given among men whereby we 
(and the Chinese) may be saved." " Go and 
preach My Gospel " is His command. " Lo, I 
am with you alway " is His promise. 

"It is the way the Master went, 
Shall not the servant tread it still ?" 



CHAPTER IV 

GOING TO CHINA 

" Have not I commanded thee ? 
Fear not, I am with thee. Oh, be not dismayed." 

NO missionary ever left a sweeter family 
circle and home than mine. And all 
over the hills of Western Pennsylvania, 
and in Pittsburg, where I spent the most of my 
life, there were loving hearts praying for me as 
I sailed away from the " Golden Gate " of San 
Francisco in that good ship Coptic. We may 
well thank our " Heavenly Father for our daily 
blessings," but oh, how we should especially 
praise Him for our friends! These make life 
sweet, and cheer us as we bear the daily load, 
and join us in our love to the Friend above all 
others. 

Although my parents were dead when I left 
for China, yet I have always felt I had their 
approval in taking this step. My father was an 
earnest believer in foreign missions, and he used 
to pin a five-dollar bill in my mother's hymn- 
book on " Foreign Mission Sabbath," telling her 
it was for the " evangelization of the world." 

30 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 31 

My brother Edward and sister Anna and my 
brother-in-law, Col. John I. Nevin, had all 
passed away. I left my two dear sisters, Mrs. 
Tassey and Mrs. Nevin both in comfortable, 
happy homes, both having four grown children. 
My nephew, Edward P. Hawes, and his mother, 
a lady of Christian refinement and intelligence, 
lived with her mother and brother in Pittsburg. 
All were in good health and I was free to go. 

Rev. and Mrs. F. H. Chalfant, their two 
children, Margaret and Ned, and also Dr. 
George Chalfant, missionary father, composed 
our party as the train left the Union Station; 
Dr. Chalfant going with us to the ship, cheering 
and enlivening everybody on the trains all along 
the way. We stopped with friends at St. Louis, 
and also at Denver on Sabbath. By request, I 
spoke at a Christian Endeavour meeting, and as 
I passed out of the church an old gentleman 
stopped me, saying : " You are all right, but I 
never would have believed anything good could 
come out of Pittsburg!" Telling him that was 
pretty hard on my city, I hastened to the train, 
which was nearly due to start. Mrs. Chalfant 
and I got the children and baggage on the train, 
and by favor of the conductor the train was held 
eight minutes, when Mr. Chalfant and his 
father, who had all the tickets, came dashing 
through the gate. They had been speaking for 
foreign missions, too, in one of the Denver 



32 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

churches. At San Bernardino my cousin, Mrs. 
Walter Grow, and her husband came to meet 
us, and presented us with a splendid bushel sack 
of freshly picked ripe oranges from their ranch. 
Oh, how delicious they were, the sweet juice 
fairly bursting through the skin, and how the 
little Chalfants and all of us pounced upon 
them, quenching our thirst, and " Grandpa 
Chalfant " treated the whole car of travel-worn 
passengers, too, with the fruit. 

At San Francisco we sailed away with bright 
skies and favorable winds. The Pacific Ocean 
is very, very wide and not always very pacific. 
There were days when the racks were used on 
the tables to keep the soup from spilling and the 
dishes from smashing, and the passengers did 
not always appear at meals, so we were glad to 
go ashore at Honolulu and see the kind friends, 
Rev. and Mrs. Frank Damon, who invited " all 
missionaries on the ship " to their home. I felt 
especially near to Mrs. Damon, as her brother, 
Rev. Andrew P. Happer, had married my cousin, 
Mary D. M'Gill, and she said to me : "I just 
feel like laying hands on you. I need you to 
help me visit the Chinese women here." But 
we were bound for Wei Hsien, China, so on 
we went, stopping at Yokohama, then at Kobe, 
where we were met by Mrs Nellie Cuthbert 
Bryan, another Pittsburg missionary, who 
helped us greatly with her fluent Japanese. At 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 33 

Shanghai I learned that Mr. and Mrs. Andrew 
Happer had just sailed to Chefoo, returning, 
from Saigon, where Mr. Happer had received 
treatment for dog-bite. We telegraphed to 
Chefoo, where they waited for me, and we spent 
a very precious day together in the home of 
Mrs. John L. Nevius. My cousin not having 
seen any of her people for three years, welcomed 
me joyfully. Mr. Happer looked hale and 
hearty, and his blue eyes very clear and bright. 
But alas! very soon after their return to New 
Chwang he died of hydrophobia in great agony. 
He had often preached in the chapel there, and 
while he had strength before his death he ex- 
horted the Chinese to believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 



CHAPTER V 
GOING TO WEI HSIEN 

WEI HSIEN is located in the centre of 
the great Shantung Province, and is 
about half way between Shanghai 
and Peking. You can easily reach Wei Hsien 
now by steamer to Tsingtau, and thence by six 
hours' railroad ride. But at that time, January, 
1897, there was no railway, and we were obliged 
to travel six days from the coast by mule litter. 
This is a vehicle composed of ropes and poles, 
with a big scoop-bonnet made of straw mats on 
top. You put your bed-clothes and your bag- 
gage in first, and then you get in the big bon- 
net, and the Chinese lift the poles and up you 
go on the backs of two mules, one before and 
one behind, and if you want to know how milk 
feels when it is being churned, just get into a 
mule litter (or shenza), and go to Wei Hsien, 
and you will find out. It was extremely cold, so 
we were glad to put on the good warm Chinese 
garments prepared for us by our good friends at 
Chefoo, Dr. and Mrs. William O. Elterich, who 
are also Pittsburgers, and who took me in their 

34 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 35 

home and did their best to give me a start in my 
missionary career, and one day tried me with 
some Chinese food. These were dumplings 
filled with chopped-up pork, and made me so 
wretchedly ill all day that I decided to let Chin- 
ese food alone. 

Let no new missionaries be discouraged if 
they cannot eat underdone pork and cabbage 
dumplings, flavored with garlic, for it is not 
necessary to the conversion of the Chinese 
heathen. Dr. Hunter Corbett and many other 
successful missionaries take their food-box to 
the country and eat proper food, prepared in a 
civilized way, believing it to be of the highest 
importance to preserve a good digestion and 
keep the body in healthy condition for work. 
It is also a decided advantage in itinerating 
among the Chinese villages to be able truthfully 
to say : " I have brought my own food with 
me, because I eat American food, so do not 
trouble to cook for me, but please let us rest, and 
listen while we talk about Jesus." Many of our 
village people are poor, and yet so willing to 
show their love for you they would give you 
food they need themselves for their own poor 
bodies. Like the Galatians, who loved Paul so, 
they would have given him their " very eyes." 
However, it is sometimes wise to accept a drink 
of the Chinese millet soup, which is very palat- 
able, and tends to sociability, and gives you a 



36 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

pleasant way of reaching the hearts of the 
women as you sit with them on the k'ang; and 
if the people are not well off, you can please them 
by a little gift as you leave. 

A healthy mind in a healthy body every mis- 
sionary should strive for and earnestly pray for, 
and try to live in peace with other missionaries 
who come from every corner of the world with 
every variety of disposition. There is a won- 
derfully sweet bond existing between missionar- 
ies, however, and if you come out to China, 
ready to serve Christ and forget self, and live 
your religion by loving your neighbour as your- 
self, and " never sit down with a tear or a frown, 
but paddle your own canoe," you will get along 
all right. And you will find, too, that the mis- 
sionaries are a splendid people to be associated 
with, for they are graduates of all the best col- 
leges and universities in America and England, 
and you must get up pretty early in the morning 
if you want to get ahead of them. 

On our way to Wei Hsien, we stopped over 
Sabbath in Tengchow. It was my privilege to 
be entertained in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Cal- 
vin W. Mateer, the noble founders of the Shan- 
tung Christian College. It had not yet been 
transferred to Wei Hsien, and the students 
were constantly coming in for advice about their 
studies, or for medical help from Mrs. Mateer, 
to whom they looked as to a mother. Here I 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 37 

began to study the language, learning to count 
and to tell my age in reply to that daily ques- 
tion, " How old are you ? " This makes an 
American woman awful mad, but in China it is 
a compliment to you. Dr. Mateer encouraged 
me by saying : " The Chinese sticks to you like 
the burs to my pants ! " 

When I reached Wei Hsien a crowd of Chi- 
nese women called on me at Mrs. Faries' home, 
and they threw up their hands in amazement 
when I answered their question as to my age. 
" Oh ! She talks Chinese. How smart she is ! 
This is only her first day, too ! " So I gained 
the reputation for knowing far more than I 
really did. But it is worth something to get 
the loving favour of the people right at the start, 
for they are so constituted that they never alter 
their first-formed opinion of us without some 
extraordinary good reason for it. 



CHAPTER VI 

FIRST SIGHT OF WEI HSIEN MISSION 

" Yet Will I Be to Them as a Little Sanctuary in the 
Countries where they shall come." 

AS we drew near to the Wei Hsien Com- 
pound, that bleak day in early March, 
our shenzas slowly winding tandem- 
style through the narrow road, the few mission- 
ary homes looked very cosy nestling within the 
brick-walled enclosure of the compound. As my 
eyes rested on the Chalfant house, with its tile 
roof, decorated with little dogs on the edges and 
a circular window looking out from their one 
upstairs room, Mrs. Chalfant called back to me 
from her shenza just ahead of mine : " Miss 
Hawes, do you see that round window? That 
is your room ! " 

That little room with the round window was 
the first room I lived in when I came to China, 
and it was the last room where I stood with 
two other missionaries and a few Chinese Chris- 
tians on the day of the Boxer riots, June 25th, 
1900, and faced death! But it is one of the 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 39 

kindest provisions of our Heavenly Father that 
we cannot see into the future. He mercifully 
drops a curtain before us, and gives us " strength 
as our day shall be." 

We were met at the gate of the compound by 
Rev. Calvin Wight, who, with his sister Fannie, 
lived next the Chalfants, in a one-storied house 
— noble, self-sacrificing missionaries. After I 
had begun itinerating, I saw a beautiful evidence 
of the love of the Chinese people for Miss 
Wight. In a village sixty li from Wei Hsien, 
while teaching a class of women, I happened to 
look up and saw a foreign cane-seated chair tied 
up in the peaked roof over our heads. " Why 
is that chair tied up there so high ? " I asked, and 
one of the women replied softly : " That was the 
chair Miss Wight used when she taught us." 
No one else may use that chair. She was one 
of the noble women who constantly thought of 
others in her work. At one village she slept 
upon a table so that the Chinese women might 
occupy the k'ang and study through the day. 
This was in one of the twelve villages she vis- 
ited in bitter cold weather, and, upon her return, 
died of pneumonia. A year later her brother 
died of the same disease, and " Calvin and Fan- 
nie " lie side by side in the little foreign cem- 
etery at Chefoo. 



CHAPTER VII 
WEI HSIEN MISSION 

THE Wei Hsien Presbyterian Mission Sta- 
tion is located a mile east of Wei Hsien 
City, a walled city of 100,000 inhabi- 
tants. Dr. Hunter Corbett, who came out to 
China in 1863 in a sailing vessel, enduring un- 
told hardships by sea and land, first " opened 
the desert," preaching all through this region. 
He found it very hard to get a place even to 
lodge for a night in some places, because of 
the hostile feeling to foreigners. Once he was 
driven out of a village and told he must go. 
While standing by his things, waiting for the 
cart to come, he looked at his watch to see what 
time it was, and a curious bystander held out his 
hand and said: "Let me see your watch." Dr. 
Corbett replied : " I will give you this book, 
and if you read it, and believe, it will be worth 
more to you than a hundred watches." The 
man took the book, which was a copy of " Mark's 
Gospel," and after Dr. Corbett left he read it. 
Again the good missionary came to that village, 
and this time he was not driven out, for he 
40 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 41 

was cordially welcomed in the home of that 
man "Wang," who had begged for his watch. 
He said: 

" Oh, I had an awful time after you left. I 
read that book through, but I threw it aside, 
saying, ' That book is for sinners, not for me ? ' 
But just after that a woman went across my 
yard, and I had told her so often to stop going 
through my place that this time I was deter- 
mined to stop it, and I lost my temper and 
struck her." 

Then her family rose up and demanded money, 
and after a terrible time with the angry people, 
and spending much money to feast them, the 
man was humiliated, and in the quiet of his 
home he acknowledged that he " needed that 
book," for he felt himself a sinner, and he read 
it through once more to the salvation of his 
soul. Dr. Corbett's visit occurred just at the 
right time, and he led that soul to Christ. 
Through that one convert, many others were in- 
fluenced and souls won and added to the church, 
and Dr. Corbett's name is honoured and rev- 
ered in many households all over this region. 
" Li Pa " was one of his converts who suffered 
persecution for his faith. One day his heathen 
neighbours gathered around his house with light- 
ed torches, preparing to set fire to the dry 
thatched roof. Dr. Corbett, hearing of the 
trouble, entered the house and knelt down, of- 



42 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

fering a prayer for God to protect this family 
of believers. Instantly a heavy shower of rain 
fell and soaked the roof, and the heathen were 
so struck by the speedy answer to prayer that 
they left the place and never bothered them 
again. 

Then, in 1882, Rev. Robert H. Mateer, D.D., 
and Rev. J. H. Laughlin came and bought land, 
and organized the Wei Hsien Mission. The 
first house was built with the help of "Li Pa " 
and others, and was put up with difficulty, for 
Mr. Mateer was obliged to sleep out with the 
lumber to keep the heathen from stealing it. 
When I arrived the station had grown so there 
were five houses, occupied by the following mis- 
sionaries — Rev. and Mrs. R. M. Mateer, Rev. 
and Mrs. J. A. Fitch, Rev. and Mrs. F. H. Chal- 
fant, Dr. and Mrs. Wm. Faries, Miss Fannie 
and Rev. Calvin Wight, Dr. Mary Brown, Miss 
E. F. Boughton, and Mrs. Mary Crossette. 
There were the two High Schools, boys' and 
girls', and also primary schools in the country. 
Also hospitals for men and women and a plain 
neat chapel at the south end of the compound. 

Every morning at eight o'clock a big bell 
swung high on a derrick-like structure sounded 
out the call for prayers, and everybody in the 
whole compound, Chinese and foreign, dropped 
their work or play, and catching up Testament 
and hymn-book, hurried to prayers. There were 






NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 43 

prayers in the schools, prayers in the hospitals, 
prayers at the big gate for stray Christians and 
heathen, and prayers in the homes. There may 
be more musical voices than the Chinese have, 
but when I returned to America I longed to 
hear the Chinese sing at morning prayers. It is 
sweet to " See heathen nations bending be- 
fore the God we love." Today the Lord's 
Prayer, so beautiful in every language, is going 
up from the lips and hearts of three hundred 
Christians in China, and the " Father seeketh 
such to worship Him." 

While learning the language, my study was in 
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mateer, and I at- 
tended morning prayers with them at the Boys' 
High School, which was under their charge and 
located in their yard. Their little children, 
" Dickson " and " Kathleen," used to come run- 
ning to meet me and give me a good-morning 
kiss. The children at Wei Hsien are the bright, 
sweet little sunbeams for the whole compound. 
When I came back from my country trips they 
would chatter around my shenza while it was 
being lifted down from the mules' backs, and, 
as I climbed out, all clamour at once their invi- 
tations to take my first meal at their house. It 
was sweet to have their welcome, and fun to 
hear them chatter: 

"Now I asked her first!" 

" No, I did. She is coming to our house ! " 



44 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

And away they would run to tell their mother. 
Once Mrs. Chalfant, on an errand to see Mrs. 
Fitch, who happened to be out, found little 
Worth and Hugh helping to set the table, and 
engaged in a pretty lively argument, with 
knives and forks flourishing in their hands. 

One said : " One knife and fork are enough 
for Miss Hawes ! " 

The other said : " No, she ought to have two, 
for she is our Sabbath-school teacher ! " 

During my first year of study I gathered the 
little foreign children together on Sabbath after- 
noons for a lesson, while their parents were 
busy teaching the Chinese. One day, while try- 
ing to explain to them the lesson about the last 
day when the end of the world should come and 
everything be consumed, little Culbert Faries, 
his eyes filled with alarm, exclaimed: 

" We'll have to go home and get out our 
things ! " And then, when the others giggled, 
he said: 

" Oh, well, we are going home to Grandpa's 
next year, so it will be all right." 

Another day, when Culbert seemed really to 
be taking in the lesson, he surprised me by say- 
ing : " We are going to have cheese for sup- 
per!" Little Margaret Chalfant, with a dis- 
gusted tone, said: 

" Oh ! Culbert, that hasn't anything to do with 
the lesson." 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 45 

One memorable afternoon little Dickson Ma- 
teer, five years old, repeated to the class the fol- 
lowing true story which he had heard a Chinese 
pastor tell at the morning service : " A Chris- 
tian woman whose heathen husband beat her 
cruelly because she persisted in going to church, 
one day knelt by the bank of a stream and 
prayed for God to help her, as she saw her hus- 
band coming after her. His hard heart was 
touched, and instead of beating her, he lifted 
her up on his back, carried her over the stream, 
and went with her to church, where he heard 
the message of salvation and became a Chris- 
tian." Little Dickson took very ill that evening, 
and in spite of the efforts of the doctors, who 
were with him all night, passed away at sun- 
rise. A few weeks later his little sister Kath- 
leen was taken, both children affected by the 
same strange disease. And Jesus gathered these 
pure lambs to His bosom from our little Wei 
Hsien circle. Then in the terrible heat of the 
summer of 1901, when thirteen sons of mis- 
sionaries in the Chefoo school died of ptomaine 
poison, our dear little Worth Fitch was taken. 
The lives of children are very precious in China, 
and while they are a great joy to the mission- 
ary life, they are also a source of anxious care. 
My first share in mission work was helping to 
prepare a tiny coffin for Irene Hayes, little 
daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Watson Hayes, who 



46 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

was playing in the yard when I arrived in Teng- 
chow, but was dead in two days after. The 
Chinese make no coffins for children, their usual 
custom being to throw out the little bodies to be 
devoured by dogs. The Christian Chinese give 
their children decent Christian burial, and we 
hope to see a universal change for the better in 
this regard all over China. However, the Chi- 
nese spend freely to buy the huge coffins for 
grown persons. Display is considered very re- 
spectable, and rich people spend large sums upon 
funerals. At every heathen funeral, cymbals 
and gongs are sounded and guns and firecrack- 
ers fired off to scare away the evil spirits. The 
ancestral tablet is set up under a canopy of 
straw mats and poles, and is worshipped by the 
relatives, who dress in coarse white cloth frayed 
at the edges, and there is loud crying to indi- 
cate their grief. Sometimes the cries are paid 
for, but it is often very real, and it is heart- 
rending to hear the wailing of: "Father!" or 
" Mother ! My Mother ! " from those who sor- 
row without hope. 

One day I heard a woman, passing a country 
chapel, wailing, " Father ! Father ! " and going 
to the door, I said : " Sister, you come here this 
afternoon and listen to the Jesus story, and it 
will comfort you." 

The woman gave no sign that she had heard 
me, but passed on, crying, her head bound up 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 47 

in white and the white garments about her. But 
in the afternoon that woman came along, dressed 
in her ordinary clothes, and leading a little 
child. She talked in a quiet way and I found 
out that she had bought that child from a starv- 
ing family for a few strings of cash, and she 
was very kind to the little thing, and she listened 
very earnestly to the Jesus story and studied 
well. She was comforted and is now a Chris- 
tian woman. 

It is also very sad to see little Chinese chil- 
dren burning incense to and worshipping the 
" Children's god." This hideous idol has his 
birthday in April, and at that time the heathen 
children go up to the temple with offerings to 
thank the idol for keeping the wolf away from 
them. He is represented as holding a bow and 
arrow, ready to strike the wolf, which is up in 
the ceiling, ready to spring. The heathen be- 
lieve that when a child dies, if its body is not 
given at once to the dogs, the dog being the 
nearest relation to the wolf, that the real wolf 
will come and take another child. Hence the 
awful custom keeps up in China, and it is a 
common sight; but Christianity is helping the 
children more and more every year to leave the 
" Children's god," and come to the Christ-child, 
and many little children in China are happy now 
when Christmas comes, and they understand it 
is the birthday of Jesus, the Friend of children. 



CHAPTER VIII 
LEARNING THE LANGUAGE 

EVERY new missionary who comes to the 
interior of China has to toil the first 
thing to learn to talk in Chinese, for 
not a single word in English is spoken or under- 
stood. So I found myself at once in a position 
where I could not talk, which is putting a woman 
in a very bad fix. In a day or so, however, my 
Chinese teacher, Wang Yuan Teh, appeared 
with smiling face and little blinking black eyes, 
very clean and neat in his plain Oriental dress, 
with long shiny black queue down his back. He 
looked so much to me like a young girl with his 
long black hair and flowing garments that I was 
reminded of my nieces at home. However, he 
was quite dignified, his voice was very clear and 
distinct, though he knew no English, and his 
patience in reading the sentences from the les- 
son-book was endless. I read them after him 
like a poll-parrot, imitating his tones as closely 
as possible. I felt sorry for him, because his 
eyes were so badly affected he was obliged to 
give up his college course after completing his 
48 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 49 

first year. Dr. Faries examined his eyes, feared 
he was going blind, and told him so. Poor 
Wang prayed all night in his room for God to 
spare his eyes, offering himself to God's ser- 
vice. His prayer was answered, his eyes grad- 
ually healed, and he has given his best strength 
and years to the service of the church. 

Inheriting my father's love for languages, it 
was a pleasure to me to study Chinese, but it is 
a very difficult language, and I grappled des- 
perately with the conversation, as I was most 
anxious to get a working knowledge of this 
strange tongue. Every morning I rose very 
early and committed Chinese sentences before 
breakfast, and then, after morning prayers, be- 
gan to study with the teacher, who always first 
bent his head, removing his black satin cap with 
the red button, and asked God to help " Hwoa 
Kuniang " to get the language so she could 
teach his people the " True Doctrine." 

" Hwoa Kuniang " is my Chinese name, the 
nearest approach to " Hawes Miss." The Chin- 
ese always say the title last, as they do every- 
thing else the reverse of our way. For instance, 
reading a book from the back to the front ; read- 
ing the denominator before the numerator of a 
fraction; wearing white instead of black for 
mourning, etc. 

My handy boy, " Li Fang Ling," was a great 
chatterbox, and therefore a great help in get- 



50 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

ting the talk. Also I used to set him at reading 
the lesson-book to me after the teacher's hours. 
He often had to dash out to ask a school-boy 
to tell him a character in the lesson which he 
did not know, and so improved his own read- 
ing. One day he grew tired of reading, and 
when Mrs. Mateer came in my study with her 
baby, saying cheerfully, " Now it's five o'clock. 
Time to stop," Li Fang Ling, with a broad grin, 
dropped the book and disappeared, exclaiming: 
" Mrs. Mateer's coming is so lucky ! My lips 
are so dry! So dry! " 



A-W00ING go ! " 

One day Wang, my teacher, startled me by 
saying two native pastors had told him he must 
get engaged to be married. When he protested 
that he did not want to, these "middlemen" 
settled his case by saying it was " Chinese cus- 
tom," and he meekly asked whom they had 
chosen for him to marry. They said, "Li Yu 
Mei," a very " suitable girl in the Girls' High 
School." Wang told them he would " not sign 
the engagement papers till Miss Hawes had seen 
the girl and told him what she was like ! " He 
had never seen her, as a broad blue and white 
calico curtain with splashy figures of big-eyed 
fish was stretched from end to end of the chapel, 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 51 

completely screening the women and girls from 
the gaze of the sterner sex. When service was 
ended, the men left the church by the main door, 
while the women remained seated for some time 
after, and then left by a side door. 

All this was so different from our American 
customs that I objected to his marrying the girl 
till he should find out first if he could love her, 
warning him that he might make a terrible mis- 
take which would spoil his life. He listened 
politely, but said : " It may be American cus- 
tom for young men and women to see each other 
and converse before marriage, but it is not Chi- 
nese custom." And so, to please Wang, I went 
to the Girls' School, where Mrs. Chalfant was 
just getting the girls out for a walk. How nice 
and neat and happy they all looked, dressed in 
clothing made by their own hands, even to their 
pretty white stockings and low embroidered 
shoes which encased their unbound feet. Mrs. 
Chalfant called my attention to a shy young 
maiden with very sweet expression, but very 
plain face, and whispered : " She is Li Yu Mei." 

" Oh," I thought, " what a pity my nice 
teacher cannot get one of the pretty girls!" 

But when I returned and said : " Wang, she 
is not at all pretty, but she has a nice disposi- 
tion," he smiled with perfect content, and said: 

" No matter about the looks. Since she has 
a good heart, it is all right ! " 



52 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

And he signed the engagement papers, which 
in China are as binding as a marriage bond, 
and " Not a wave of trouble rolled across his 
peaceful breast." He sent her betrothal pres- 
ents, and everything was complete and satis- 
factory. 

A few days later Li Fang Ling came sheep- 
ishly into the room, and seated himself back of 
my chair, close to the rockers on the floor, and 
as he did not speak, I. asked him : " What af- 
fair have you, sitting back there so I can't rock 
my chair?" He laughed a little nervously and 
said his family wanted him to get engaged! 
" Curious, thought I, that these young people 
should come to consult me about their love mat- 
ters." When I asked him if the girl he wanted 
was a Christian, he said : " No, but she is will- 
ing to study the doctrine." 

" Has she unbound her feet ? " 

" No, her feet are bound, and her parents 
want thirty strings of cash for her." 

" Well, you can't have her," I said, " for I 
won't give you thirty strings of cash for a 
heathen girl to be your wife. There are plenty 
of good Christian girls with big feet." To my 
relief, he said : " I never saw her and I don't 
want her. My people told me to ask you." And 
away he went, glad to be let off with a good 
excuse. 

Later on, however, Cupid's darts began to fly 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 53 

again. When I was in a country village, among 
the women who came to study was a pretty 
young Christian school-girl, whose bright eyes 
charmed Li Fang Ling, as he opened the gate 
to admit them, and I saw her blushing as he 
silently handed her an empty condensed-milk 
can, which she slipped up her sleeve. In vain 
he tried to arrange a match with her, for her 
people said his home was too far off, and be- 
sides, he owned no land. I wonder what an 
American girl would think if her lover had only 
an empty tin can to offer her for a present! 
Wang's match was also a failure, as his fiancee 
took ill, and he was sent for to pray beside her 
death-bed. He returned looking very sad, and 
said : "lam sorry she did not live, for I could 
have loved that girl. She was very nice." 

It was well these early attempts at matrimony 
were unsuccessful, for when these young men 
grew several years older they were better able 
to care for a wife, and were both happily mar- 
ried to good women. 



CHAPTER IX 
NEWS FROM HOME 

"As Cold Waters To A Thirsty Soul, so is Good 
News from a Far Country." 

WE were always so glad when the mail- 
messenger arrived from Chefoo, and 
eagerly seized our share of home let- 
ters when the mail-bag was emptied out and con- 
tents divided. Before the Boxer riots of 1900, 
having no railway to the coast, we had to wait 
two weeks for our home letters to be brought 
to us from Chefoo, and often longer, as the 
roads were bad. Now we rejoice in a daily mail 
delivery, and have splendid service in the new 
Siberian Railway, which brings news to us writ- 
ten by our friends only twenty-five days pre- 
vious. Sometimes we get the " good news from 
the far country," but alas ! bad news travels fast, 
too," and our hearts are pierced as we read of 
the dear ones who leave the little home circle 
one by one. 

About six months after I came to China the 
news reached me of the death of my dear sister, 
54 




The Hcuse Where Miss Hawes Taught Bible Class 
Before the Boxer Riots 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 55 

Mrs. Tassey, and then a little later my niece, 
Mary Hawes Nevin, a dear, beautiful girl. 
Again the gates of Heaven have opened and re- 
ceived my sister, Mrs. Edward P. Hawes, then 
her mother, and then my beloved nephew, Ernest 
D. Nevin. These are the times when we feel 
most keenly the separation from our loved ones, 
and long to comfort them in their sorrow as 
these precious ties are severed. And we under- 
stand a little of the joy it will be when we shall 
all reach that blessed country where there is " no 
more sea." 

Our Chinese friends are extremely tender and 
sympathetic when we are in sorrow. When the 
news came to me of my nephew's death, an old 
Christian coolie passed by, and seeing my grief, 
prayed on his knees, the tears pouring over his 
face : " Heavenly Father, I beseech Thee, help 
Hwoa Kuniang ! She has some deep sorrow. I 
don't know what it is, but if it is any of us 
Chinese who have hurt her, help us to help 
her!" 

Dr. S. A. Hunter, while living at Chining 
Chow, was shocked one day by his cook enter- 
ing his study loudly weeping. Asking him what 
dreadful thing had happened, he could not at 
first control himself to reply. 

"Is my wife sick? Are my children hurt?" 
asked Dr. Hunter in alarm. 

" No, no ! Your mother is dead ! " He had 



56 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

just been told by Mrs. Hunter, who had first 
received the news. 

Especially do they feel for us when an old 
person is taken from our family. My mother's 
beautiful portrait, hanging in my study, was 
greatly reverenced. Sometimes the heathen 
women wanted to worship her, and they were 
always willing to listen when I talked to them 
of how she loved her Saviour, and how He 
came to meet her and took her to Heaven, where 
she is waiting for me and my sister. And how 
He has told them to believe in Him and not let 
their hearts be troubled, for He has promised 
to come to meet them too, if they will believe in 
Him, and give up the false gods which have 
no power to save their souls, and Jesus will 
receive them too in His Father's house. 

The Chinese honour their old people, and in 
their ignorance, worship their ancestry at the 
graves, but may it not be possible that China is 
not divided up today between the nations be- 
cause there is a blessed Fifth Commandment, 
with a promise? 

" Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother ! " 

There is comfort in the thought that God has 
not only blessed and prospered His church 
through the fiery persecutions of the Boxer war 
and other great events, but He has also used 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 57 

even our individual troubles to advance His 
Kingdom. One striking instance of this oc- 
curred when I was teaching a class in a heathen 
village, forty-five li from Wei Hsien. It was 
cold weather and the snow was all over the 
ground, when the messenger came out, bringing 
me fresh bread and home letters, sent out by 
Mrs. Chalfant. I was glad to see him, for it 
had been hard work to start that class. I was 
the first foreign woman who had ever been in 
that village, and it was such a circus to the vil- 
lagers, who crowded in so all around me to see 
the " Foreign Devil " I could scarcely turn 
around to get my meals or rest, and my teacher, 
who tried to preach in the yard, advised me to 
give it up and go to another village, but I said : 
" No, I am not going to let the devil get this 
village if I can help it." Then God heard our 
prayers and gave us a good Bible class. The 
people's curiosity abated, and we had about 
twenty-five women studying around the rude 
tables for twenty-one days and souls were won. 
One of the women had come there very much 
against her will. She went crying along the 
road with her little six-year-old daughter, and 
when people asked her what was the matter, she 
would say : " Oh, I don't want to go to the 
devil's class, and learn their religion! My hus- 
band made me come because he is one of the 
* Second Devils,' but I am not one." 



58 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

When she arrived her little girl came to me 
and told me her name was " Chuen Mei " (that 
is, "Beautiful Spring"), and it pleased the 
mother to see me pet the child and listen to her 
little songs. The Holy Spirit completed the 
work in her heart when she saw me in trouble. 
For the women clustered around me to hear me 
translate to them my letters, and tell them the 
wonderful news from across the sea. Alas! 
The first letter told me of my dear niece's death, 
and little Chuen Mei patted my hands and tried 
to comfort me. Then, hearing the cymbals and 
noise of a passing funeral, I told them how my 
niece had gone to Heaven because she believed 
in the Saviour, so I would surely see her again, 
but " those people out there going to the temple 
to worship idols have not this hope, for their 
loved one did not believe in the true God." And 
then the mother who " did not want to learn 
our religion " gave her heart to Jesus and be- 
came a Christian. She has been a faithful stu- 
dent and Bible woman ever since, and her little 
daughter has graduated from our Wei Hsien 
High School and is now teaching in that very 
village a school of twenty Christian girls. An- 
other heathen woman, Mrs. Hu, also became a 
Christian at that time, and has helped to teach 
the women in the villages around her home. 
Her daughter is also one of our graduates and 
teaches the girls' school at Chining Chow. 




Ch'un Mei and Her Twenty Christian Scholars 




NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 59 

All the idols have been taken out of that 
temple where that heathen funeral went that 
day, and have been pitched into a deep ditch 
in front of the temple, which has now been con- 
verted into a boys' school. 

" Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's 
good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." 



CHAPTER X 

DELIGHTS OF COUNTRY WORK IN CHINA 

WHILE the educational work in the 
compound is interesting and very im- 
portant, the foreign missionary who 
goes outside the compound walls and visits from 
village to village in the homes of the people sees 
the great need, gets into their life, and finds her 
way into their hearts in a way she never could 
in the schoolroom of the foreign compound. 
Happy was I when I could take my Bible-woman 
with me in the shenza, cart, or barrow, and 
start out for a country trip, and many an upset 
have we had, too. But never any bones broken, 
and we have always had cause for rejoicing. 

We have one hundred and seventy out-sta- 
tions, and six thousand Christians in the wide 
district around Wei Hsien, with a population of 
about three million people. This district is 
visited by our evangelistic foreign missionaries, 
native pastors and helpers. My work is teaching 
the women and children in this district, visiting 
in the homes, and holding Bible classes. And 
now such beautiful progress has been made by 

60 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 61 

our Christian women in their Bible studies it is 
wonderful to see the changes that have taken 
place, in contrast to the early days. Instead of 
my having to crowd in the shenza with a fat 
Chinese woman and her heavy baggage, and 
travel in that uncomfortable way for a day's 
time to my Bible class in the country, I go out 
entirely free, and find plenty of good Christian 
women in the neighborhood of wherever I teach 
a class, who are trained workers now and glad 
to come when called from their homes to help 
in the work. Some of these before the riots 
had only just learned their first prayer. The 
steady teaching, with God's blessing, has brought 
about this happy change. 

Then, at the close of my Bible classes, the 
women go out, two by two, throughout the 
heathen villages, where there are no Christians, 
and spend weeks at a time, voluntarily teaching 
the Gospel. 

There is a distressing lack of native pastors 
and evangelists in our Wei Hsien district, be- 
cause of the constant demand from outside 
places for our trained men ; and also, because of 
the inadequate support for our native ministry, 
in the face of the increased cost of living and 
education of their children. Wei Hsien mission 
is called upon for Christian workers from all 
over China. Our graduates go out to every 
province, and each year our own Wei Hsien 



62 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

work must suffer because of this constant drain. 
While we rejoice that so many are doing such 
splendid work throughout China, preaching the 
Gospel and filling positions of trust, yet we pray 
earnestly for an out-pouring of God's Spirit 
upon our country work around Wei Hsien, that 
the native pastors, and teachers, and evangelists, 
who are coming out from our Union Theolog- 
ical Seminary at Tsingchowfu, and those al- 
ready on the field, may be cheered by receiving 
better support for their labours, and still more 
abundant spiritual fruits. Men Christians are 
being constantly trained for Christian work by 
conventions and Bible classes held both at Wei 
Hsien and in the country districts by our for- 
eign missionaries, and they go out in bands of 
two, three, and even as many as forty through- 
out heathen villages where there are no Chris- 
tians, sowing broadcast the good seed in the 
desert places. This is voluntary work sub- 
scribed and given freely by the Christians. Ten 
thousand days of voluntary preaching were sub- 
scribed in one section recently, account kept of 
the promised time, and credit given for each 
day's preaching. The people are doing the work 
earnestly and enthusiastically. 

Before the riots I went out with our Dr. 
Mary Brown on a wheel-barrow to visit her old 
Bible-woman who lived in a village seventy li 
from Wei Hsien. The old lady was out when 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 63 

we arrived at sunset, but soon she came in, say- 
ing : " I have just been out watching the men 
dig my grave, and I told them to wait for a 
better day, as it looked like rain." This was 
several years before she died, but the Chinese 
are very fore-handed about such things, and 
they believed her recent stroke meant a speedy 
death. 

They also have a way of dressing sick people 
in their grave clothes which would shock any 
American into speedy dissolution. One of our 
Wei Hsien school-girls was very ill when I came 
to her village, far out from Wei Hsien. She 
was so pleased to see me, and happy with some 
little Christmas gifts I gave her, which, I told 
her, were just like those her classmates had re- 
ceived from our American friends across the 
sea. She was very pretty, with heavy braids of 
glossy black hair and dark eyes. She asked my 
Bible-woman to comb her hair for her, and the 
next day she asked her mother to dress her in 
her grave clothes, saying : "I am all ready. I 
must go." When her grandfather asked her if 
Jesus had come for her, she said : " Not yet, but 
He is coming." And in a moment she saw Him 
coming, and died with a triumphant smile. 

In the same village a woman died in great 
terror, screaming all night : " Satan has come ! 
I am bound ! He has bound me ! " When her 
Christian sister urged her to believe and trust in 



64 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

Jesus, as she had often urged her to before she 
took sick, the poor woman only wailed : " Too 
late now, I am bound! " and died in agony. 

Dr. Ting, for years before the Boxer riots, 
was our Dr. Faries' Christian helper in the hos- 
pital. He died on his knees while praying (dur- 
ing the Boxer war), after many noble services 
rendered to poor persecuted Christians. His 
widow has done beautiful work with me in the 
country as my Bible-woman, and has won many 
souls to Christ. Her eldest daughter, " Dor- 
cas," a graduate of our High School, studied 
medicine, and was the favorite native assistant 
to the sick in the Woman's Hospital. She be- 
came ill, and after suffering many, months, died 
in great peace. I visited her many times during 
her illness, and when I would go to her, saying, 
" I love you, Dorcas, and Jesus loves you," she 
would always smile so brightly and say, " I 
know." One day her mother left the room, and 
heard Dorcas laughing. Wonderingly she w r ent 
to her, asking: "What are you laughing at?" 

" Oh, I am thinking of Heaven and the golden 
streets and the gates of pearl ! " 

When I saw her again she asked me to sing 
" We are out on an ocean sailing," and joined 
with me in the last verse, her voice very weak, 
but the words especially clear at the last — "Wan- 
liao hsin k'ou, cKengliao pan wang/' etc. That 
is, in English: 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 65 

"When we all are safely anchored, 
We will shout, our trials o'er; 
We will walk about the city, 
And we'll sing forevermore." 

In a year her younger sister, " Ai Hsiang," 
that is, " Fragrant Love," passed away. She 
was a lovely young Christian, one of our school- 
girls, and just before her death she opened her 
eyes very wide and said : " Why, who are all 
these people ? All dressed in white ! " Her 
aunt said: "What people?" The girl said: 
" Why these people all dressed in white ! " Then 
suddenly she exclaimed : " Sister ! Sister ! " and 
with a bright smile she joined her sister in 
Heaven. I often think God manifests Himself 
most clearly to these people to encourage them 
in their Christian faith, and dear Ai Hsiang's 
glimpse of the white-robed angels and her sister 
was one of many triumphant deaths in these 
humble homes where God sends His messengers. 

Once I slept in a room where there was a 
very large coffin, and the rats were very free 
about chasing over my bed, as often happened 
in my travels. In the morning, when the family 
gathered for prayers, the old grandfather smiled, 
and smoothing the coffin with his hand, said to 
me : " See what a beautiful coffin my son has 
given to me. Isn't the wood fine? It cost a lot 
of money." When the old folks in China get 
a present of a coffin from their sons, they con- 



66 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

sider it a very high mark of filial love, and are 
proud as peacocks, not in the least taking it as a 
hint for them to use it. 

Just before the Boxer riots began in Shan- 
tung, I had a large class in Poa Hsing, where 
many women studied the Gospel for the first 
time. It was growing dangerous then, however, 
and every night the native pastor and elder kept 
watch, as the thieves were busy and had stolen 
a donkey and burned the gate of one of the 
Christian families. After the riots, when I re- 
turned to China, I had another large class in 
that region, and the elder said : " All those 
women you had in that class before the riots 
can read in their Bibles now ! " After this very 
encouraging class was over, Elder Liu got out 
his big cart, and packed it with our bedding, 
and my Bible-woman and I sat on top, while 
the men helpers walked. The cart was drawn 
by a big mule, and in front a pair of very large 
strong oxen. We travelled for several miles, 
and then we came to a river which we hoped to 
cross by bridge, and so reach a village on the 
other side, where we had promised our next 
Bible class. But alas! The bridge was nearly 
all washed away by a flood of high water and 
floating blocks of ice! The prospect was not 
alluring, but a coolie was hired to lead the oxen, 
and, selecting a place to cross where the water 
seemed the shallowest — but alas! the bank was 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 67 

steepest — the elder, cracking his long whip and 
shouting, the cart, with all of us and our stuff 
on top of it, went with a tremendous swoop 
down into the icy river! We got only about a 
third of the way across, when the oxen stooped 
to drink, and the coolie tugged in vain, for 
they were as fixed as a stone wall, and the cart 
veered around with the strong current. A big 
crowd collected on the bank, and ten men (par- 
tially disrobed) waded out to help us. My cook 
dropped off the cart and bravely carried my 
Bible-woman across on his back to lighten the 
load. Finally, after a great deal of screeching 
and prodding and tugging, the animals moved 
and drew the cart safely across. We had a 
splendid class of women studying for two 
weeks, after we got settled in the village where 
they expected us. 

During a trip through Lin K'iu in 1909, my 
shenza upset six times, and during the last over- 
throw one of the shenza poles broke in two, 
and landed me and my poor Bible-woman on 
the side of the road, in the late afternoon, sev- 
enteen li from the village we were bound for; 
and there we sat and anointed our wounded 
feelings, till a wheel-barrow could be hired, 
which took us by the light of the stars to our 
stopping place for the night. Since that trip I 
have quit using shenzas almost entirely, and 
find I receive fewer bruises and bumps, to say 



68 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

nothing of the aggravations, by using wheel- 
barrows; for they do not upset so often, and get 
there in the end, although they are slow and we 
are sometimes delayed by bad roads. On my 
return to the compound, the missionaries gave 
me a welcome as they always do, and Mrs. 
Grace Wells came to see me and said : " Now, 
Miss Hawes, I think your fiftieth birthday ought 
to be celebrated, so I want you and all the ladies 
to come to tea tomorrow." So we had a happy 
little jubilee together, November 2, 1909, and 
the ladies of Wei Hsien Mission all sang the 
following original poem, composed by Mrs. 
Wells, to the tune of "Clementine," waving their 
handkerchiefs with the last verse : 



From a town in Pennsylvania, 
Pittsburg, if you care to know, 
Came a lady missionary, 
Ten or twelve long years ago. 



Came and lived in Wei Hsien compound 
Till the Boxers burned the place, 
But they could not scare her always; 
Back she came with shining face. 



Oft she goes itinerating, 
And she gets so many falls, 
But she picks herself together 
And into the shenza crawls. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 69 

Bright and cheerful, always laughing, 
Did you ever see her like? 
If you're ever blue or doleful, 
Just you to her south house hike ! 

Now she says she's all of fifty, 
But she looks a young thing yet, 
And we think perhaps in dream-land, 
That her age she did forget. 

Here's to fifty, fifty summers, 
Here's to many years to come, 
Let us all rejoice together, 
Blow the trumpet, sound the drum ! " 

This delightful occasion was enlivened at the 
close by the arrival of a home mail, and we all 
had the joy of receiving letters from our dear 
friends across the sea. And some nice Christ- 
mas gifts came to me just in time to be my birth- 
day gifts. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE BOXER WAR 

RUMOURS kept coming to us of a wide- 
spread anti-foreign feeling among the 
Chinese for some time previous to the 
outbreak at Wei Hsien. The young Emperor 
Kwang Su (like the progressive Chinese who 
had started the Reform Party) became an eager 
student of Western learning. The Bible had 
been presented to the Empress Dowager by the 
native Christian women of China, but she dis- 
played no interest in its sacred pages. Not so 
Kwang Su, who read it, and every book he 
could get, issued by the Christian Literature So- 
ciety, or from other sources, recommended by 
some of his influential advisers who were stu- 
dents of Occidental science and political econ- 
omy. He bought many scientific works, besides 
maps, globes, and wind and current charts. He 
could scarcely wait for the new publications to 
arrive after sending off his order for them, and 
when he sent to the express office to get books 
which had not yet arrived from the publishers, 
the poor underlings were afraid to go back lest 

70 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 71 

they should lose their heads if they appeared 
without those books before the disappointed 
king. Kwang Su would also line up the eunuchs, 
who of course were all heathen men, and he 
would quiz them on the Bible, portions of which 
he had copied from the sacred book on great 
sheets of yellow paper. The eunuchs, not hav- 
ing any knowledge of sacred literature, would 
grab any native pastor or native Christian and 
bring them in and treat them to tea, and get 
them to explain the lesson which they were to 
be examined upon and felt it was to their in- 
terest to pass well. 

One of the most powerful works then pub- 
lished was a book called " China's Only Hope," 
written by the Viceroy " Chang Chi Tung," and 
printed by the Tsung Li Yamen, copies of which 
were sent by royal command to the high officials 
of the empire, and it was advertised on big yel- 
low posters everywhere. It was said that this 
book " made more history in a shorter time than 
any other modern piece of literature; that it as- 
tonished a kingdom, convulsed an empire, and 
brought on a war." This book and many others 
opened the eyes of the emperor to the causes of 
China's weakness, and suggested to him mate- 
rial for his reform edicts, which he issued in 
rapid succession. But China was not yet ready 
for such reforms, and the very day and hour 
when Dr. Timothy Richard, secretary of the 



72 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

Christian Literature Society for China arrived 
in Peking, especially invited by the Chinese Gov- 
ernment as adviser to the king in carrying out 
his reforms, the Empress Dowager arose, and 
wrested the reins of government from the em- 
peror, and Kuang Su became a helpless pris- 
oner in one of his own palaces, September 22nd, 
1898. 

Just at this time, too, the Yellow River over- 
flowed its banks, flooding out three hundred vil- 
lages, and rendering a million people homeless. 
Then followed famine and pestilence, and the 
poor, superstitious people believed the gods were 
angry because the traditions of their fathers 
were not regarded. Then sprang up the secret 
society known as the " Boxers," sworn to kill 
or drive out of China all foreigners, and uproot 
Christianity and everything foreign. " Away 
with these foreign devils who have absorbed 
our ports and our land, and have brought tele- 
graphs, steamboats and railroads, and taken 
away the Chinaman's means of livelihood by in- 
troducing foreign machinery instead of wheel- 
barrows, carts, or boats, or hand-looms." These 
Boxers met daily in the temples and government 
buildings, and were drilled in the use of the 
sword and other exercises, supposed to make 
them invulnerable to foreign swords and guns. 
Boxers were easily recognized by a peculiar 
mark on the forehead, made by knocking the 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 73 

head on the ground whenever they met for drill. 

The Empress Dowager had no intention 
of putting down the Boxers, but furthered a 
union between them and her Imperial troops, 
and thus turned one of the most troublesome 
foes of the Manchu Dynasty against the for- 
eigners. She sympathized with the slow, con- 
servative Chinese who protested against any 
change in old customs and the Reform edicts of 
the young emperor. These edicts she proceeded 
to destroy, and under her powerful influence, 
the Boxer war swept through the country until 
the spring of 1900 found every province in a 
tumult, and the legations in Peking closely be- 
sieged and protecting the missionaries. 

On June 20th the German Minister, Baron 
Von Kettler, while riding in a chair on the pub- 
lic street, was shot and killed by the Imperial 
troops. The same day all the missionaries fled 
for safety to the British Legation, and the na- 
tive Christians to a large building close by, 
which had just been vacated by Prince Su. Here 
they were made comfortable and guarded by 
foreign soldiers. 

Just before this, on the night of June 13th, 
the Boxers had held high carnival, looting, burn- 
ing, and murdering, and the streets of Peking 
were strewn with the bodies of native converts. 
Imperial soldiers arresting all who tried to es- 
cape, and turning them over to the Boxers; and 



74 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

official police served hot tea to refresh the 
Boxers in their fiendish work. No words can 
depict the reign of terror through which the 
Chinese Christian has passed during that Boxer 
war all over China, and nobly has he stood the 
test! The streets of Peking flowed with the 
blood of those faithful ones who refused to 
deny their Lord. The missionaries were spotted 
as " foreign devils,'' and were exposed to the 
awful tide of fury and hatred of the Boxer 
party, who with the official sanction of the Em- 
press Dowager, had unlimited power to perse- 
cute. 

When I visited Peking in May, 19 12, I rode 
under the splendid archway of stone, built over 
the main street of the city by the Chinese Gov- 
ernment to the memory of the murdered German 
Minister, Baron Von Kettler, and I saw in the 
British Legation Chapel a beautiful polished 
brass lectern, the sacred Bible upheld by the 
shining wings of an American eagle. At the 
foot of the pedestal are inscribed the words: 
" Presented to the British Legation by the 
American missionaries who were sheltered in 
this chapel during the siege, June 20 — August 
14, 1900." When I stood in that peaceful little 
sanctuary and looked around, I wondered how 
all those missionaries and their children could 
possibly have crowded into that little chapel and 
lived through those seven awful weeks listen- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 75 

ing to the shot and shells and howling mob just 
over the wall beside them. There they were 
shut up, feeding on porridge made of the grain 
which they ground themselves, brought to them 
by soldiers who managed to secure it for them 
from deserted granaries ; and during this trying 
time the Empress Dowager sent them gifts of 
poisoned flour and other food, which they dared 
not eat lest it too was poisoned ; and letters urg- 
ing them to " Come out," as they were in 
" great danger," and she " could not protect 
them any longer unless they would go with the 
escort of soldiers (which she would provide for 
them) to the yamen." Fearing treachery and 
certain death by going out, they made no reply, 
and again letters came from the Empress, say- 
ing she was their " best friend," and urging 
them to " allow the soldiers to escort them to 
Tientsin, where they would be safe, etc." Then, 
with the other hand, she wrote edicts, doubling 
the price of foreign heads, and wrote letters say- 
ing: " I can't get them out! " Also, ridiculing 
the foreign women of the Legation, saying: 
" They think I am * so nice.' When it is all 
over, I will invite them to a feast, and they will 
come, and a few rolls of silk presented to them 
will make it all right, and they will think I am 
so nice." And it was just as she said. 

The Peking missionaries all bear testimony to 
the noble generosity and helpfulness of the Le- 



76 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

gation ladies. Mrs. Conger was such an angel 
of mercy among the wounded soldiers; they 
called her " Fairy Godmother." When the ma- 
terial lacked for making sand-bags, she brought 
out her dainty hemstitched linen and the " roll 
of silk," presented to her by the Empress Dow- 
ager the previous year, and gave them for sand- 
bags, and Lady MacDonald gave her beautiful 
silk portieres freely, to be cut up for sand-bags, 
and the Legation ladies made 1,500 sand-bags 
in three days. All hands were busy and many 
thousands of these bags, filled with earth — for 
they had no sand — were piled up as fast as made. 
The room used for the hospital was gloomy and 
dark because of the necessity of piling sand- 
bags up high around the windows, and oh, how 
brave the soldiers were! The missionaries say: 
" Ever will we remember the brave marines who 
protected us." And how they wept when the 
brave men were wounded and were so unwilling 
to lay aside gun and belt when they knew they 
were so needed. One brave soldier with a bul- 
let in his right arm declared he couldn't stand it 
to be " caged up in the hospital ; he would go 
back! He would go back!" The nurses — who 
were our missionaries — had hard work to get 
him to lie down, to see to his wound. Then 
those who were wounded to the death — some of 
them mere boys — who fought so nobly against 
that terrible Boxer army and fell from the wall 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 77 

in the brave defence! And the beautiful spirit 
of love between the various nationalities ! When 
an American soldier was carried in, a Russian 
prepared his grave, and when another American 
offered to take the service, the Russian said: 
" Let me do it. He was with me on the wall ! " 
A young British soldier prepared the little grave 
for the little child of Dr. and Mrs. Inglis, who 
took fever and died during the siege, and asked 
the privilege of keeping it in order, saying he 
had a " little one across the sea himself." 

The Empress Dowager sent out an edict by 
the fastest riders to T'ai Yuan Fu, for circula- 
tion broadcast : " I command that all foreign- 
ers, men, women and children, old and young, 
be summarily executed. Let not one escape, so 
that my Empire may be purged of this noisome 
source of corruption, and that peace may be re- 
stored to my loyal subjects." Jung Lu, one of 
the Queen's advisers, and high in favour, tried to 
stop this, asking : " What glory could China 
expect to gain by the slaughter of women and 
children? We should become the laughing- 
stock of the world, and the Old Buddha's wide- 
spread fame and reputation for benevolence 
would be grievously injured." " Yes," replied 
the Empress Dowager, " but these foreigners 
of yours wish to see me deposed, and I am only 
paying off old scores. Ever since the days of 
Tao Kuang, this uproarious guest within our 



78 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

borders has been maltreating his hosts, and it is 
time that all shall know who is the real master 
of the house." The following proclamation was 
placarded all over Peking: 



REWARDS 

" Now that all foreign churches and chapels 
have been razed to the ground, and that no 
place of refuge or concealment is left for the 
foreigners, they must unavoidably scatter, fly- 
ing in every direction. Be it therefore known 
and announced to all men, scholars and volun- 
teers, that any person found guilty of harbour- 
ing foreigners will incur the penalty of decap- 
itation. For every male foreigner taken alive, 
a reward of 50 taels will be given; for every 
female, 40 taels, and for every child, 30 taels. 
But it is to be clearly understood that they 
shall be taken alive, and that they shall be gen- 
uine foreigners. Once this fact has been duly 
authenticated, the reward will be paid without 
delay. A special proclamation, requiring rev- 
erent obedience." 

" His Excellency, ' Ching Shan/ tutor to 
Prince Tuan, and therefore intimately asso- 
ciated with the Boxer leaders, writes in his 
diary, commenting on the above : ' Much larger 
rewards than these were paid in the tenth year 
of Hsian-Feng, i860, for the heads of barbar- 
ians, but, of course, in those days they were 
comparatively rare, whereas now, alas! they 
have become as common as bees ! ' " 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 79 

I never knew before what my head was worth 
till I read this proclamation. 

Word was sent the missionaries from the Chi- 
nese Foreign Office on the very evening they ar- 
rived at the British Legation, expressing their 
" deep feeling for the foreigners," saying the 
" utmost protection would be afforded them.' , 
Acting upon this avowal, Professor James, an 
English missionary in China since 1883, went out 
on June 20th, just before dark, unarmed. He 
had been with the native Christians, trying to 
help them get settled comfortably, and it is 
thought he may have gone out to do more for 
them. A British soldier on guard saw all that 
followed; Prof. James walked as far as the 
bridge, and there a few Imperial soldiers rode 
up. One soldier raised his gun to fire, but Prof. 
James threw up his hands to show he was un- 
armed. The soldier lowered his gun, and dis- 
mounted, laid his hand on Prof. James' shoul- 
der just as he had started to run, and led him 
away. Our foreign soldiers had strict orders 
not to fire the first shot, and so a brave man must 
lose his life. It was afterwards learned that 
these Imperial soldiers took him wounded to 
Prince Chuang's palace (the Boxer general's), 
prodding him all the way with their bayonets. 
Here the princes, Chuang and Tuan, ordered 
him to kneel, but he refused, saying : " I am an 
Englishman, and cannot kneel to any but my 



80 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

God and King." Then he was forced to kneel 
upon a chain for several hours. Jung Lu tried 
to save his life, and even sent soldiers to rescue 
him, but Tuan and Chuang executed him at 6 
A. M., June 23rd, before Jung Lu's men arrived. 
His head was exhibited in a cage hanging from 
the main beam of the " Tung An " gate. " The 
Old Buddha, says Ching Shan in his diary, " has 
been informed of his death, and she gave orders 
that Taels 500 be distributed to the soldiers who 
had captured him. That is a reward ten times 
greater than that which was promised in the 
proclamations." 

The Chancellor of the Japanese Legation, Mr. 
Sugiyama, was killed by Kan Su troops on June 
nth at the Tung Ying gate. Jung Lu urged 
the Empress to issue an edict, bestowing post- 
humous honours on the murdered foreigner. He 
advised her that it is contrary to international 
law to attack the accredited representatives of 
foreign powers. On July 3rd, the Empress Dow- 
ager, in the name of the Emperor, and through 
the Chinese Minister at Tokio, addressed the 
following message to the Emperor of Japan: 

" To your Majesty, Greeting : " 

" The Empires of China and Japan hang to- 
gether even as the lips and the teeth, and the re- 
lations existing between them have always been 
sympathetic. Last month we were plunged in 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 81 

deep grief when we learned of the murder of 
the Chancellor of your Legation in Peking. We 
were about to arrest and punish the culprits 
when the Powers, unnecessarily suspicious of 
our motives, seized the Taku forts, and we found 
ourselves involved in all the horrors of war. In 
face of the existing situation it appears to us 
that at the present time the continents of Europe 
and Asia are opposed to each other, marshalling 
their forces for a conflict of irreconcilable ambi- 
tions. Everything, therefore, depends upon our 
two Asiatic Empires standing firm together at 
this juncture. The earth-hungry Powers of the 
West whose tigerish eyes of greed are fixed in 
our direction will certainly not confine their at- 
tention to China. In the event of our Empire 
being broken up, Japan, in her turn, will as- 
suredly be hard pressed to maintain her inde- 
pendence. The community of our interests ren- 
ders it clearly imperative that at this crisis we 
should disregard all trifling causes of discord, 
and consider only the requirements of the situa- 
tion, as comrade nations. We rely upon your 
Majesty to come forward as arbitrator, and anx- 
iously await your gracious reply to this appeal." 

This and another message to the Emperor of 
Russia, appealing to him to come forward as 
arbitrator, have been inscribed in the annals of 
the Dynasty, by order of her Majesty. 



82 NEW THRILLS IN OLD" CHINA 

The Chinese officials' idea of heroism in a sol- 
dier is illustrated in the following memorial from 
the Censorate at Peking to the Throne at Sianfu 
(where the Empress and Emperor fled when the 
allied forces approached), describing the arrest 
of En Hai, the murderer of the German minis- 
ter, Baron Von Kettler. 

" A spy in Japanese employ, engaged in 
searching for looted articles in the pawnbroker 
shops of the districts in Japanese military occu- 
pation, found among the unredeemed pledges in 
one shop a watch bearing Baron von Kettler's 
monogram. The pawnbroker said it had been 
pledged by En Hai, who lived at a carter's inn of 
the Tartar City. The spy went at once, and in- 
formed the Japanese, who promptly sent out a 
picquet to the inn mentioned. Two or three men 
were standing about in the court yard, and the 
soldiers asked one of them whether En Hai was 
there. " I am the man," said he, whereupon 
they took him prisoner. Under examination, 
En Hai was perfectly calm and showed no sign 
of emotion. The presiding magistrate inquired, 
* Was it you who slew the German Minister ? ' 
He replied : ' I received orders from my ser- 
geant to kill every foreigner that came up the 
street. I am a soldier, and I only know 
it is my duty to obey orders. On that day 
I was with my men, some thirty of them, in the 
street, when a foreigner came along in a sedan 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 83 

chair. At once I took up my stand a little to the 
side of the street, and taking careful aim, fired 
into the chair. Thereupon the bearers fled. We 
went up to the chair, dragged the foreigner out, 
and saw that he was dead. I felt a watch in his 
breast pocket, and took it as my lawful share; 
my comrades appropriated a revolver, some 
rings and other articles. I never thought that 
this watch would lead to my detection. But I 
am glad to die for having killed one of the ene- 
mies of my country. Please behead me at once." 
" This En Hai appears to have been an honest 
fellow. His words were brave and dignified, so 
that the bystanders all realized that China is not 
without heroes in the ranks of her army. On 
the following day, he was handed over to the 
Germans and beheaded on the scene of his ex- 
ploit." 

The memorial closes with : " We trust that 
your Majesties may be pleased to confer upon 
him honors as in the case of one who has fallen 
in battle with his face to the foe." 

Ching Shan writes in his diary : " Duke Lan 
says this evening that by the orders of that ras- 
cally Chinaman, Yuan Ch'ang, the corpse of the 
foreign devil, Baron von Kettler, has been cof- 
fined. He, Duke Lan, wanted Prince Tuan to 
have the corpse decapitated and the head ex- 
hibited over the Tung An gate. Yuan Ch'ang 
defends his action, saying that he knew the 



84 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

German Minister personally at the Tsung Li 
Yamen, and he cannot bear the idea of leaving 
his body uncoffined. ,, 

The following is from the book, " China 
Under the Empress Dowager." 

" Concerning the Manchu soldier who shot 
the German Minister defenceless in his chair, 
he met his end with a fine courage. But with 
fuller knowledge and a clearer insight, the schol- 
ars of the Empire might well put forward claims 
to real heroism and moral courage of the rarest 
kind in the case of Yuan Ch'ang and Hsu 
Ching-Cheng, who nobly laid down their lives 
for what they knew to be their country's highest 
good. So long as China can breed men like 
these, so long as the Confucian system contains 
moral force sufficient to produce stoic scholars 
of this type, the nation has no cause to despair 
of its future." 

Yuan Ch'ang and Hsu Ch'ing were brave 
and good, and like Jung Lu and Li Shan, 
implored the Empress Dowager not to de- 
clare war against the world, saying that 
China could not possibly escape defeat and 
disaster. Yuan Ch'ang even dared to say he 
had " found foreigners to be generally reason- 
able and just in their dealings," and he " doubted 
the authenticity of the despatch — a forged mes- 
sage — demanding the Empress' abdication, and 
restoration of the Emperor to power, which 



, 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 85 

Prince Tuan professed to have received from the 
Diplomatic Body." Whereupon Prince Tuan 
arose and angrily • asked the Empress whether 
she " proposed to listen to the words of a Chi- 
nese traitor? " Her Majesty rebuked him for his 
loud and violent manner of speaking, but or- 
dered Yuan Ch'ang to leave the Audience Hall. 
Yuan and Hsu presented three successive Memo- 
rials to the Throne, denouncing the Boxers, and 
urging the Empress to protect the foreign lega- 
tions. These two brave men changed the word- 
ing of the Empress' decree, causing it to read: 
" Protect all foreigners," instead of " Slay all 
foreigners," as she had ordered it, and thereby 
saved the lives of all the Fu Kien missionaries 
and hundreds of other missionaries and other 
foreigners. They also influenced other viceroys 
to do the same thing. Chang Chi Tung and Liu 
K'un Yi were the most powerful of the South- 
ern viceroys, and virtually controlled the whole 
Yang-tz River from Sz-Chuen down to Shang- 
hai, including the Provinces of Hupeh, Anhui, 
Hunan and Honan. They personally interviewed 
the consuls of the foreign nations at Shanghai, 
and made an agreement with them that: "If 
they— the consuls — would keep their gunboats 
out of the Yang-z River, they — Liu K'un Yi and 
Chang Chi Tung — would keep that whole region 
along the Yang-tz quiet." This was done. 
On July 27th, when she discovered that Yuan 



86 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

and Hsu had changed the word in her decree 
from " Slay " to " Protect all foreigners," there- 
by saving so many lives, it is said that she or- 
dered them both to be sawn asunder. Before 
suffering this awful death, Yuan and Hsu 
showed great calmness, and Yuan said he 
" Hoped that the sun might soon return to its 
place in the Heaven, and that the usurping Comet 
might be destroyed." When Duke Lan, who 
superintended this tragedy, bade him be silent, 
he said : " I die innocent. In years to come, my 
name will be remembered with gratitude and 
respect, long after you evil-plotting princes have 
met your well-deserved doom. Turning to Hsu, 
he said : " We shall meet anon at the Yellow 
Springs — (spirit world). To die is only to come 
home ! " 



CHAPTER XII 
BOXER RIOTS AT WEI HSIEN 

MUCH has been written about the siege of 
Peking, and the terrible sufferings of 
our martyred missionaries at Paoting- 
fu, and in other parts of China. 

The following gives the history of our siege at 
Wei Hsien, and the burning of our beautiful mis- 
sion. Just after Christmas Rev. Sidney Brooks, 
a young English missionary, was returning to 
his station at P'ing Yin from T'ai An Fu (where 
he had been spending the holidays with his sis- 
ter, Mrs. Brown), when he was seized by a band 
of ruffians, and, after much torture all day, was 
murdered, on December 30, 1899. 

This was the beginning of the Boxer troubles 
in Shantung. The missionaries at Wei Hsien, 
however, felt we had never had any riots, and 
hoped all would be well, as we had such a liberal- 
minded, good, progressive governor of Shan- 
tung in Yuan Shih K'ai, who was exerting every 
influence to quiet the people and train his troops 
for efficient service. But the " Big Knife So- 
ciety " had secret meetings, and drilled nightly, 

87 



88 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

and it was discovered later that they had regular 
organized plans for carrying on their desperate 
schemes of destruction. At Hwang-hsien, it was 
learned ( after it was too late to help us), that 
the postmaster had opened a letter which he sus- 
pected was from " one Boxer to another." It 
read as follows : " Wei Hsien is to be burned on 
the 29th of the moon. Hope to send you more 
good news later." (The Chinese date, 29th, was 
the very date of our riots, that is, June 25th, 
1900.) 

Just before these troubles began, although the 
Chinese felt gloomy about the future, everything 
seemed so peaceful and lovely in our little com- 
pound, and the raspberries were beautifully ripe 
and plenty in the gardens. I put up thirty jars 
of the fruit for winter, and prepared for a trip 
to " Tien Yu K'ou," where I had arranged to 
teach a Bible class for women. Mrs. Couling 
and her little son Arthur came in a shenza from 
Tsingchowfu on their way to the coast, and took 
lunch with me. She brought the news that 
Tungchow in Chihli Province had been burned. 
I told her I hoped our folks at home would not 
worry when they read of it in the papers, and 
she said : " Oh, no ! They will think it is Chili 
in South America ! " 

The next day I was off to the country, taking 
with me a native pastor's wife, Mrs. Lwan. We 
arrived safely at T'ien Yu K'ou, a quiet little 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 89 

mountain village, 150 li from Wei Hsien. I had 
a splendid class of fifty-four women there for 
five days, when a shenza arrived for me to go 
back to Wei Hsien! It was Sabbath morning, 
and my teacher, Wang, called all the Christians 
into the chapel, and, as we told them we must 
leave, many wept, and after a short service the 
question was asked : " How many of you are 
willing if the test comes, to die for Christ ?" 
One woman in front said : " To die or live is not 
important. I am willing to die for Christ." As 
she rose, every one of those dear good women 
rose with her. As I looked upon that little com- 
pany of Jesus' followers, giving this beautiful 
testimony of their love to Christ, I felt sure He 
looked in love upon them, too, and the angels 
rejoiced. Those who do not believe in foreign 
missions, and would not give the Bread of Life 
to such simple, earnest, brave souls as these, are 
not worthy to kiss the hem of their garments. 
Oh, the blood shed by our noble, true Chris- 
tians in China! Oh, the sufferings they have 
borne for Christ! All honor to the memory of 
our martyred foreign missionaries! And all 
honor to our martyred Chinese Christians, " who 
came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb!" 



90 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

BURNING OF WEI HSIEN MISSION! 

ESCAPE FROM THE BOXERS ! 

(Miss Hawes' letter to her sister in Pittsburg.) 

Written from the German Mines at Fangz, 

China. 

"June 26, 1900. 
" My dear Sister, 

" You will be glad, I know, when I tell you 
I am alive! Our mission at Wei Hsien was 
mobbed yesterday and buildings all burned, and 
we three escaped by climbing over the wall; 
Mr. Frank Chalfant, Miss Boughton and I, 
with a few Chinese Christians, women and men, 
who were helpers in the mission. It was God's 
great mercy and power manifested in a won- 
derful manner that delivered us, as no help from 
any man came to us, while our mission was 
literally surrounded by a howling mob of about 
five hundred people, besides at least as many 
more who were onlookers. We escaped with 
only our clothing which we had on us, and Mr. 
Chalfant had in his pocket a small silver shoe, 
and some silver pieces of money which he man- 
aged to get out of the safe. I had paper notes 
in my pocket equal to seventy-three strings of 
cash, or twenty-three dollars in United States 
money. We were stripped of everything, as we 
could not carry anything, and had all we could 
do to escape. I will tell you from the first the 
facts. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 91 

"June 27th. 

" I started this yesterday, and then began to 
tear it up, thinking perhaps we were still in 
danger, and could not send it. Oh, the horror 
of a Chinese mob! Dear Ellie, may you never 
see one! 

" You know I was in a village, fifty miles 
(150 li), from our mission station, teaching a 
class of women. I had a splendid class of learn- 
ers. Fifty-three came, and the day I left one 
more, a dear old lady, who walked forty li to 
get there, and exclaimed : ' I have come on pur- 
pose to study the gospel. Now I must go back ! ' 
The sorrow of the Chinese Christians was very 
touching to me when the messenger came to me 
with a note from Mr. Fitch. My cook handed it 
to me with tears in his eyes. It said : ' The 
trouble is so acute we are ordered to go at once 
to the coast. I will take the women and chil- 
dren to-morrow, going to Yang-Kia-Ko, where 
a ship is waiting. Mr. Chalfant will wait for 
you and Miss Boughton.' 

" Well, I got ready, and we had final services 
with the women, and I told them it was not my 
will to leave them, but God's will. I must go, 
and they must be faithful to Jesus, and be will- 
ing to die for Him if necessary, and not deny 
Him, for He would 'confess them before His 
Father in heaven,' if they would ' confess His 
name before men.' One woman said: ' We are 
not afraid to die for Christ.' And they all rose 
at once when my teacher asked them if they 
would be true to Christ, and to stand up and 
show their willingness to die for Him if neces- 
sary. They cried so when I left them. We left 
Sabbath morning, and traveled steadily till sun- 



92 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

set, when it was necessary to stop to feed and 
rest the animals. I was put into a very tiny 
room, where I could not get a free breath, but 
was so sick at my stomach from the bad mules' 
uneven paces that I had to lie down a while.- 
When I felt better I went outside and walked in 
the street, where the people quickly gathered to 
see the ' foreign devil/ One man said : ' Kill 
her/ but was quiet. One dear young Christian 
girl was there, the only believer in the whole 
village, who had been in two of my former 
classes, and she stayed with me, which was such 
a comfort. The fresh air felt good and my 
cook prepared me some food, which I ate and 
then packed up to start. Just then a message 
came from Mr. Chalf ant : ' Travel by night 
and come quickly/ We went right along till 
we reached Wei Hsien at two o'clock in the 
morning. Miss Bough ton (who had just come 
in from the country before me) came out to 
meet me, and seemed so glad to see me. We 
went to her room and lay down awhile, and 
then got up and began packing. She had al- 
ready packed my books and dishes for me, and 
the canned goods. We worked hard all day 
Monday packing, and had the boxes all carried 
over to Mr. Chalf ant's yard, and it made a great 
booty for the mobbers when they came. 

" I think now it was God's plan to have us 
do that, for they were on one side of the house, 
so greedy to seize the prey, and it gave us time 
to escape from the other side of the house. But 
we didn't have the mob when we put those 
boxes there. We put them all in one yard to be 
ready for packing quickly on the carts. We 
intended shipping our clothing and books, and 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 93 

best things, to Tsing Tau, and burying our 
dishes and canned goods. 

" Everything was quiet, and our home mail 
came, and we three sat down and rejoiced over 
the news from you that $1,500 had been raised 
for the ' Shady-Side Home/ and over Doctor 
Chalf ant's letter, saying half the money had 
been raised for the chapel here. I said : * It 
seems ridiculous for us to tear up and leave 
this way/ We felt very comfortable, but sud- 
denly the trouble came. Miss Boughton and I 
walked together to Dr. Faries' house, and 
thought of having their man carry their best 
things in boxes (these the Faries had already 
packed before they left), up to the Chalf ants' 
yard, to be ready for the carts with our boxes. 
As we walked down the street, we were annoyed 
to find such a collection of insolent, noisy chil- 
dren (very few men among them). We said: 
' How strange the gate-keeper should let this 
crowd in here ! ' But such a horrible feeling 
came over us when we got through with the 
Faries' boxes and came back. For the street 
had men in it then, and our helpers were trying 
to drive them out, saying the men had been 
stealing pickles from the schools. Providen- 
tially, both girls and boys had gone to their 
homes in the country, as schools were disbanded 
for the summer. When we got into our house 
it was not three minutes until some Bible- 
women came to us so frightened, saying there 
was a * mob breaking down the wall ! ' Then 
came Mr. Chalf ant, who had seen them do it, 
and he carried a big club in his hand, looking 
very grave, and said : l We must leave at mid- 
night, if possible. It is our only hope. Perhaps 



94 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

we will be mobbed before that time/ Then he 
told us to go over and stay in his house. So 
we did, and the Christian women about the place 
went with us, five in all. Mr. Chalfant got his 
pistol and went out and faced the mob outside 
the big gate at the north end of the compound. 
For two hours and a half that brave, good man 
held five hundred fiends at bay. He had already 
sent for the Chinese soldiers and hoped they 
would come to his relief. Only one came, flour- 
ished his gun a little, and then rode away, say- 
ing nothing. I will say here, the officials and 
soldiers and mobbers joined in carrying off our 
mission safe and other things, which proves the 
Chinese soldiers are not our friends. The safe 
has no money in it, but valuable accounts of our 
treasury and mission affairs. 

" Mr. Chalfant withstood them bravely, shoot- 
ing in the air, and telling them to keep back. 
They had no guns or weapons but bricks, which 
they hurled at him, hitting him all over. But he 
dodged his head so he was not killed. It is all 
so awful, but God spared his life. He was 
jeered at by the men, who said : * Go inside 
your own little inch and stay with your mother 
and father.' One said, finally : ' The Big Knife 
Society doesn't fear guns! They are invulner- 
able.' And Mr. Chalfant, amidst a shower of 
flying bricks, got through the opening in the 
big gate, which was quickly closed and barred. 
They were so devilish in their excitement that 
they ran around to a barred up gate at the south 
end of the Mission and burst that gate in. And 
Mr. Chalfant, seeing them go off to that end, 
came back to us, and we were glad to see him, 
for we believed he would be killed. Miss 







y -■- .-■ ** . 




Hf; 




- 






~UhM 


HBPP^ 


% tmmS^ r 


Plfc 


" 1 ; 


, 


1 I ^kiJS^I 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 95 

Boughton and I prayed together with the Chris- 
tians for God to spare his life, and it was an- 
swered. 

" Mr. Chalfant came in looking so pale and 
wan and faint. I said, * Thank God, you were 
not killed ! ' He said : 'I am very thirsty.' 
Some fresh water had just been drawn and we 
gave him a glass, and we fed him to give him 
new strength. My cook had just brought over 
peas and corn and bread, which Miss Boughton 
and I ate with Mr. Chalfant to give us strength. 
You may be sure we were not hungry under 
such circumstances. Just then the mob burst 
in the Chalfant gate, and we three went up- 
stairs together and prayed for God to ' spare 
our lives for the sake of those we love, and to 
" let the cup pass " from us if it be His holy 
will; but, if not, then let us die quickly and 
give us His grace.' 

" Then we saw flames outside the window, 
and it was from the chapel, the next house but 
one to Chalfant's! We heard the mob smash- 
ing in the windows of the Chalfant house where 
we were. We knew then our only hope was to 
get out, and so we passed through the sitting- 
room window to the porch (the mob in the din- 
ing-room separated from us only by closed fold- 
ing doors). Mr. Chalfant's faithful servant 
man took a ladder lying on the porch, and set 
it against the wall, and we climbed over, Mr. 
Chalfant going first and holding up his arms to 
help each of us over. The Chinese women were 
like beasts crazed by fire. But we pushed them 
and made them go, or we never would have 
gotten over. Bricks were hurled at us, and a 
few of the mob in the next yard cried : ' The 



96 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

foreign devils are getting away ! Kill them ! ' 
But, oh, the blessed power of God! Not one 
man followed us! 

" We joined hands and walked — not ran — ■ 
right across the cornfields, praising God for His 
deliverance. Four trusty, faithful men stuck to 
us, helping us along, taking our arms. The 
Chinese women and men (except the teacher, 
Mr. Chu) were all saved, got to their homes, but 
did not go with us. We passed several crowds 
of men on the way, but nearly all were friendly, 
and one man said : ' It was good when they 
lived among us.' But another crowd laughed 
at us and said : ' Why don't you go home ? 
Go on home ! ' We were not hurt, however, 
though we had to run once from a village, as 
we saw men coming from it to attack us. We 
dodged around by another way quickly, and 
stopped talking, and quietly took to the corn- 
fields, avoiding the villages, and lying once in 
among the corn till all seemed quiet and it was 
dark. 

" Then we travelled right along for nine miles 
from Wei Hsien, and we reached this place 
(Fangz) at half -past eleven. Oh, how thankful 
we were. One of our men gave out and had to 
be supported by two others. The earth had 
filled in my low shoes, so I was a dirty sight 
when I got here I can tell you. No hat, only 
my white shirtwaist and blue calico skirt. No 
wraps. Miss Bought on had on an old wash- 
dress which she intended leaving, and we both 
had our clean clothes and travelling things all 
laid out to put on when through packing. But, 
you see, we had no time for change, the mob 
came so suddenly. Well, these Germans re- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 97 

ceived us so cordially and gave us a hearty wel- 
come. God raised up these good friends for 
us. They gave us a good supper at twenty min- 
utes past twelve (midnight). One said: 'See, 
it is twelve o'clock, dinner-time. Let us eat ! ' 
We were fearfully tired, but we were so thank- 
ful. The place here is strongly guarded. Mr. 
Chalfant told them they might expect an attack, 
as he heard the mobbers say they would come 
here the next night. So the Germans here at 
once united forces, sending to a mine not far 
from here for the men and guns, ammunition, 
etc., to come here, and now we have a strong 
force. 

" Telegrams were sent to Dr. Corbett for the 
Board in New York as soon as the wires were 
repaired which the Chinese had cut down, and 
to Tsing-tau for soldiers, and to tell Mrs. Chal- 
fant, who is there, and other missionaries, so 
they would not try to reach Tsing-tau by way 
of our mission at Wei Hsien. The fifteen Ger- 
mans here are splendid, brave men, and, you 
know, have military training, as all do in Ger- 
many, and they have ' big guns,' as the Chinese 
say, and so last night they sent word to all sur- 
rounding villages, that if any man came within 
one hundred yards of this place he would get 
shot. Early in the evening, while we were at 
supper, the mob began collecting, a distance off, 
and, I am ashamed to say, I grew almost sick 
with fright to see another mob. What scared 
me most was the sight of a large body of Chi- 
nese soldiers, sent by the Chinese General, who 
had come out and apologized for the burning of 
our beautiful Wei Hsien mission, saying it was 
not his fault, etc. But the Chinese all tell us the 



98 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

soldiers and their generals are hypocrites and 
would kill us if they could, but are afraid of the 
Germans' ' big guns/ I believe the silly Chinese 
soldiers were shaking in their knees all night as 
they pretended to guard along with the Ger- 
mans outside the walls, which, by the way, are 
low ones and covered with a thick fringe of 
broken beer bottles stuck in the top. The boy 
waiting on us at supper looked out of the win- 
dow and said, in a scared sort of way : * So viel. 
man ! ' The Germans were not afraid, but said, 
quietly : * We have no fear, and we have no 
hope. China is not America, nor yet Germany/ 
They watched all night, and were prepared with 
guns and dynamite for any attack. I supposed 
there would be a lot of firing all night, but was 
so tired I fell asleep. This morning I asked 
one of the Germans if they had killed anybody, 
and he said, ' Yes, one — a mosquito.' Then 
they said that none came to attack. The crowd 
that we saw had all scattered. When Miss 
Boughton and I went out to breakfast, Mr. 
Chalfant said : i Good news ! Twenty cavalry- 
men are coming from Tsing-tau to escort us ! ' 
(Note: Rescue party beaten back to Kiao- 
chou.) So we are going to be taken to Tsing- 
tau, and I cannot tell you now what we will do 
after that. I only know we are all saved and 
are well and happy, and are very, very thankful 
to our good God, who was a * very present help 
in time of trouble,' and we will do as we are 
ordered to do. We want to do His will, not 
ours, and we hope this fierce persecution will 
purify the church of Christ and be the begin- 
ning of a greater and better work than we ever 
dreamed of in China. We pray that our beauti- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 99 

ful Wei Hsien Mission will be rebuilt, and that 
we will be more faithful in His service. 

" I cannot help mourning the loss of all my 
beautiful books and pictures, the photographs 
of you all, and especially our mother's picture, 
and my sweet little piano, which was such a com- 
fort to me, and all the gifts of love from my 
good friends, — my beautiful silk quilt from 
Shady-Side Church. And so many things the 
dear, good missionaries here have lost, too! But 
it is all God's will, and we say : ' His will be 
done. He has delivered us, and He will care 
for us.' 

" Lovingly, 
" Lottie." 
(Charlotte E. Hawes.) 

Letter by Rev. Frank H. Chalfant, D.D. 

Written to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign 

Missions 

"July 3, 1900. 

" The Wei Hsien compound was burned and 
looted at eight P. M. on Monday, June 25th. I, 
and those with me, did all in our power to save 
the premises, but God did not will that our ef- 
forts should be successful. Here is the story. 
Call it drama or tragedy, as you will. 

" At ten o'clock on Friday, June 22nd, a spe- 
cial messenger came from Rev. George Corn- 
well, of Cheffo, who was in charge of a ship 
sent by our efficient consul, Hon. John Fowler, 
to the junk port of Yang-Kia-Ko, fifty miles 
northwest of Wei Hsien. This message urged 
the immediate coming of our people to the 
steamer. We decided the first party should go 
there, and they started Saturday, at 9 A. M. 



100 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

Meanwhile, we had despatched special couriers 
to recall the Misses Boughton and Hawes, who 
were many miles away in the interior, and I re- 
mained alone to escort these ladies, and to at- 
tend to the thousand and one things likely to 
arise. On Saturday Miss Boughton arrived, 
and on Sunday we had the usual Chinese ser- 
vices, fated to be our last at Wei Hsien for 
many a day. 

" At daylight Monday, Miss Hawes came, 
having travelled all night. We three then 
worked hard to pack the most valuable small 
belongings and to provide for the various de- 
partments of our large Mission plant. The 
schools had already been dismissed. A thing 
most providential. 

" At 4 P. M. one of our native pastors, Li 
Ping I, came with a cart to take away some 
goods of his own and others. While loading 
the cart an unruly crowd pushed in at our gate. 
The gateman sent for me, saying he could not 
restrain them. I took a cane, went out, drove 
them away, and held the gateway till Mr. Li's 
cart went out. At once they attacked the cart, 
and in a moment stole everything in it. I could 
do nothing outside, and so shut the large gate 
against the mob's return. Meanwhile, seeing 
the sudden turn in affairs, I had despatched a 
letter to the yamen, asking for a few soldiers to 
protect the place. Returning to our houses, I 
advised the ladies to go to my house as the most 
secure, and wait for me. I ran back to find the 
dispensary windows smashed, and a howling 
mob on the higher ground to the northwest, 
storming the place with bricks and tiles. I ran 
back, took from the safe taels ten of sycee and 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 101 

$7 in Mexicans, as provision against flight, 
locked up the safe, and returned to try to keep 
back the mob till help should come from the 
yamen. The lives of many depended upon keep- 
ing back the mob. I ran forward amid a shower 
of bricks and tiles and, at twenty paces, warned 
them back. They jeered at me. A brick hit my 
foot, slightly injuring, but not disabling the de- 
fending garrison. The mob fell back, and just 
then a cavalryman appeared, brandishing his 
gun. He rode around the compound and dis- 
appeared. I afterward learned that he had not 
been sent out to help, but was casually returning 
from other business. It was now 7 P. M., and 
being at time of longest day, the sun was still 
high. My hope and prayer then was to keep 
back the mob until sunset, so that we could 
escape under cover of darkness. I took up my 
position at the corner of the compound outside. 
They stood still and soon said : ' Let's scatter.' 
They were undecided what to do, and at this 
point the presence of one soldier from the 
yamen would have averted the calamity. No 
human help came. I stood my ground quietly 
and waited. They said : * Move forward.' A 
few started toward me, but they slunk back. At 
7.45 they made an onset. Some had crept along 
the bank of the stream near our place and 
emerged behind me. I saw my disadvantage, 
and warned them to halt. They came on yelling 
and throwing stones. I ran for the gate amid 
fusillade of missiles. There was no question 
but that they intended to kill me. I got in 
safely and slammed and barred the gate. Ran 
up the street to find the mob had broken in our 
unused gate at the south, and were swarming 



102 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

up the street. We barricaded the doors and 
windows with furniture, and closed my large 
sliding doors between dining-room and sitting- 
room, and went upstairs. Servants and several 
Chinese women were with us. It was now 8 
o'clock, the exact hour we had previously set 
for a community prayer-meeting for the safety 
of our Christians. We had a few short earnest 
prayers. Then the cry was raised by the Chi- 
nese women — ' The chapel is on fire ! ' I knew 
the time had come to run. 

" Going downstairs, we found my front yard 
free from the mob, but could hear the crash of 
windows in the rear of the house. Here a most 
remarkable thing came to light which saved our 
lives. I had had a short ladder carried to my 
front porch to inspect the roof of the house, 
which had been leaking. Hastily placing this 
ladder on the wall we climbed over and all got 
out. Everywhere else the rioters were doing 
their nefarious work except in my front yard. 
The chapel, Miss Boughton's house, and other 
buildings were burning fiercely, and the mob 
was busy piling fuel on the front porch of the 
Ladies' Home just next to my house. Only 
two men saw us, and crying, ' The foreign 
devils are escaping, kill/ threw a brick which 
passed over our heads. No rioters were outside 
the wall at that point, though many were not 
far distant, who might have followed us. We 
quietly walked through fields to Li-Kia-Twang, 
a friendly village, and thence turned south. It 
was growing dark. Three Chinese servants 
were with us besides two non-Christian men, 
who often act as barrow-men for us, and, at 
this crisis, proved loyal to us. The Christian 



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Reverend F. H. Chalfant, D.D., Hero of June 
Wei Hsien, China 



!5th, 1900 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 103 

women took refuge in Li-kia-twang. Miss 
Boughton, Miss Hawes, myself, and the few 
men walked on. Miss Boughton had a hammer, 
which was our only weapon left. I ought to 
say that during the two hours, while withstand- 
ing the mob, I had not the least fear. This was 
doubtless due to the incessant prayer for me by 
our young ladies and Christians. Their part 
was most noble, for it was easier to be out fac- 
ing the mob than inside under suspense. They 
did not know but that I had been killed. Leav- 
ing the road, we took to the fields, and directed 
our way to the German mines, nine English 
miles away. Oh, the relief we enjoyed! The 
God-sent darkness, the companionship of faith- 
ful Chinese friends. With the burning build- 
ings behind us, and the stars above, we easily 
kept our direction. We avoided all villages, 
and dropped on the ground at sound of foot- 
steps, not from fear but from strategy. We 
did not want the people to know where we had 
gone. At midnight we arrived at the mines, 
and were cordially welcomed by Mr. .Braune- 
miller and his stalwart colleagues. They hap- 
pened to be up and at once prepared us a meal. 
We saved from our ruined homes a cheap suit 
of clothing on our backs, the little silver I pro- 
cured for emergencies, the value of $23 (in 
gold), in bank-notes, which Miss Hawes hap- 
pened to have in her pocket, and one hammer! 
These are now the worldly possessions of us 
three, but we do not care a cent ! 

" All the houses, dispensary, chapel, Chinese 
rooms, both schools, are burned. The hospital 
wards and gate-house still stand. Outside wall 
is intact save top coping. These are not cut 



104 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

down. Movables have been carried off or 
burned. (It was market-day, and our chairs 
and other goods were placed on the street for 
sale.) The worst is, two of our Christians are 
said to have been killed. One an old man, Mr. 
Liu, who is in the habit of making our com- 
pound a place of sojourn — a good old man. 
The other is one of my best school teachers, 
Mr. Chu Tung Kwang, who was passing 
through en route to his school. (Later, Mr. Liu 
was badly wounded while nobly standing by 
Dr. Chalfant as he was facing the mob, and, 
after exhorting them in vain, he knelt in prayer, 
pleading for God to ' use His power, as he had 
failed ! ' This good old man recovered from 
his wounds.) 

" I must not neglect to express the hearty 
welcome and assistance given us by this com- 
munity of German engineers. When in Feb- 
ruary last we sheltered five German railway en- 
gineers, who were driven away from their sta- 
tion by a mob, and fled empty-handed to our 
mission, we little supposed that the tables would 
be turned so early. These men all know of that 
little episode, which makes our missionaries all 
the more welcome. 

" On July 3rd, under Chinese escort, our 
party arrived at Tsingtau. 

" F. H. Chalfant." 



The Board writes thus : 

" No words of comment need be added to this 
simple recital of heroic endeavour. Each mail 
brings added evidence of the grit and grace of 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 105 

the missionary and the loyalty and love of the 
native Christians in China. 

In the good providence of God, it may be that 
only a few of our missionaries will win the mar- 
tyr's crown, but already thousands of the native 
Christians have evinced the depth of their con- 
victions and the strength of their faith by the 
willing sacrifice of their lives for the cause of 
their Lord and Saviour. Thus far all letters 
from China refer to heroic fidelity of the Chi- 
nese Christians under a persecution as severe as 
that of the early disciples in the gardens and 
arenas of Nero." 

Dr. Hunter Corbett (Chefoo) writes: "I 
found suffering every place. Many trying to 
live on corncobs, the dried vine of the sweet po- 
tato, bark, and leaves of trees, roots, etc. I 
found the Christians hopeful. They feel that 
God has not forsaken them, but has heard and 
answered prayer. Wonderful grace has been 
given to our persecuted people. They have stood 
firm and are not giving up the Christian life." 

My good, faithful cook who prepared for us 
the last food we ate at Wei Hsien (which re- 
newed our strength for that long tramp of nine 
miles to Fangz), faithful and true to us when he 
might easily have escaped, was beaten almost to 
death by the mob. They tore his clothes all off 
him, and beat him with a club having nails in it. 
For hours he lay on the roadside unconscious, 



106 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

but kind hands helped him home. Today he 
bears still in his body the " marks of the Lord 
Jesus." 

Dr. Charles Lewis wrote that his cook, 
after much suffering, won a martyr's crown. 
Refusing to deny his Lord, he was beheaded, 
and his head suspended from a tree. This good 
man had brought to Christ eleven families, con- 
sisting of fifty-three persons in his village; these 
were burnt out of house, and home, but the " fire 
did not burn out their faith in Christ." 

BRIGHT SPOTS 

One beautiful spark of good shone out that 
dark day from those wicked hearts. Our good 
old Siu ta Sao, who had helped many poor sick 
heathen, as well as Christian women, in the hos- 
pital; who had patiently washed their boils and 
sores and taught them about Jesus, while pass- 
ing out of the gate, was attacked. But suddenly 
a voice rang out from that mob : " Let her 
alone ! That is Siu ta Sao ! " Her little bundle 
of clothing was restored to her, and she was al- 
lowed to pass out unharmed. 

God's protecting hand was very clear that day. 
He did not send the soldiers as we prayed Him 
to do, because He knew best. They would doubt- 
less have murdered us, had they come. They 
joined the mob when they did come, and looted 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 107 

the first house they entered, which was Dr. 
Faries' house. 

Not five minutes after we escaped from the 
Chalfant house, it was in flames. Many sup- 
posed we were burned to death, and mourned 
for us, especially the Christians, who had not 
heard of our escape. It was not the intention 
of the mob to let us escape. 

The ladder was at hand just when we needed 
it to get over that high wall. 

The glorious array of boxes collected in the 
back yard, which we had been packing to ship 
off, bewitched the mob, so that they fell on 
the booty, fighting over it, and yelling, and were 
so busy carrying it off they forgot us, so we 
escaped through the yard on the other side of 
the house — the only spot in the whole compound 
free of the mob ! 

God led us safely out unharmed. 

Just over the wall stood a native pastor, whose 
sister was among the women we helped over the 
wall. He thanked us and escorted the women 
all safe home. 

Our four trusty native friends risked their 
lives by going with foreigners then, but never- 
theless they voluntarily went with us, leading 
us through the darkness to the German mines, 
and were a great comfort. 

" Pray that your flight be not in the winter." 
Our Lord's words came to us then, and we 



108 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

thanked Him that it was pleasant weather, so 
we did not suffer from cold. 

Our flight occurred between harvests, when 
no one was watching in the fields. We read in 
Isaiah i :8, " a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.'' 
The Chinese, like other Orientals, also make 
" lodges " of mats and poles, and with dogs 
and guns keep watch over the crops when har- 
vest is nigh. But our flight occurred when the 
wheat harvest was just over, and it was not yet 
time for the millet crop. So the fields were 
clear before us. 

The man, named Han, who took the lead, had 
often wheeled my barrow for me, and yet had 
never professed Christianity. I said to him: 
" Han a Koa, you see what our good God has 
done for us! The Chinese soldiers cannot say 
they saved us. They wouldn't help us. Only 
God saved our lives. Isn't that true ? He said : 
" Yes, that is true." " Well, then, you ought to 
believe in God, Brother Han." And he replied : 
" I do believe in Him." 




Ruins of Reverend F. H. Chalfant's House 
at Wei Hsien After Boxer Riots 




A Fat Sheep Presented to the Missionaries 
by Yuan Shih K'ai as a Good-Will Offering 



CHAPTER XIII 
HAZARDOUS JOURNEY TO THE COAST 

NEXT morning after our arrival at Fangz, 
our feet were so swelled up from our 
long tramp we could hardly get on our 
shoes, but our hearts were light, and the Ger- 
mans were very kind and gave us the freedom 
of their house and camp, saying : " All is 
yours," and set their " Regina " music-box going 
to cheer us up. They had come direct from Ger- 
many to China, so were not familiar with Eng- 
lish. One of them looked puzzled and said : 
" English is a very uneasy language to learn." 
Soon after breakfast they sprang on their horses 
and galloped off to their tall stack by the mines, 
as they saw smoke and flames rising. The Chi- 
nese had laid a wide circle of firewood and set 
fire to it, but the Germans got there in time to 
put out the fire before any great damage was 
done. The Chinese had cut the telegraph wires, 
but as soon as they were repaired, and our mes- 
sages had been sent off, the Germans also re- 
ceived messages, and one morning they received 
one which made them very joyous, from their 
109 



110 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

authorities at Tsingtau, telling them to " leave 
the place under Chinese guard and come to the 
coast." This freed them from responsibility, 
and at once they began tearing up and packing, 
saying: "If the Chinese burn the place, they 
will have to pay for it." The chief engineer said 
at dinner : " Outside all is peace. Inside all is 
mob ! My potatoes are a mob ! " Sure enough, 
there was no mob outside, and the cook was so 
upset by the confusion of packing, the potatoes 
were not served quite so well as usual. 

Many of our Christian friends had been to see 
us, and the Chinese official had come out in dig- 
nity and state with his red-capped retainers, and 
held a long interview with Mr. Chalfant, trying 
to put the blame upon him at first ; but seeing he 
could not, apologized for the disaster. He tried 
to bribe with a hundred taels of silver, which he 
had hidden in the tea, a large box of which he 
presented on arrival. Mr. Chalfant found the 
silver, and returned it to the official, saying: 
" We will not accept the tea either, if it has any- 
thing to do with the public affair. " The official, 
being scared about the " public affair," lest he 
be called to account for it, seemed anxious to 
make things right, and assured Mr. Chalfant 
that the tea was " simply a personal gift to your- 
self, Mr. Chalfant." 

Governor Yuan Shih K'ai had taken extreme 
measures in Tsinanfu, and had his soldiers shoot 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 111 

down a deputation of Boxer leaders, who had 
tried to persuade him to place himself at the head 
of the anti-foreign movement and " free China 
of all foreigners." 

Yu Hsien. former governor of Shantung, had 
just been made governor of Shansi Province. 
We owe it to this change of governors that our 
Shantung missionaries were not all killed. Yu 
Hsien was extremely anti-foreign, and strictly- 
obeyed the Empress' orders to " slay all foreign- 
ers." He began by killing three missionaries 
with his own hands. Then a terrible slaughter 
of missionaries ensued. Also, their little chil- 
dren, and Chinese Christians were slain all over 
Shansi. Su Fang, one of our dear medical help- 
ers at Wei Hsien, pupil of Dr. Mary Brown, 
who had married a Christian teacher and moved 
to Shansi, was killed with her husband and chil- 
dren. 

In one day Yu Hsien caused fifty foreign mis- 
sionaries to kneel in line with their little chil- 
dren, and the executioner slew them with the 
sword as he passed along the line. The children 
did not cry, but covered their faces with their 
little hands while they suffered martyrdom. 
Then Yu Hsien lined up fifty-six native Chris- 
tians, and thus he spoke : " Now, according to 
the Empress' orders, I have slain these hated 
1 foreign devils.' But you are different, being 
of the Middle Kingdom. If you will now give 



112 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

up and utterly renounce forever this accursed 
doctrine, all will be forgiven you. Your lives 
will be spared, and you shall be our people. 
What do you say ? " 

Then from that little company of brave, loyal 
disciples of our Lord, a voice at once rang out 
so true: " Ch'ing Ta Yin, K'ai tao pa! Puh 
yung zai wen tao, chu shiliao ! " That is, " Great 
man, use your sword, if you please. You need 
not ask us that question again." And there the 
angels of God crowned them. 

When the Boxer war was over, and the Boxer 
leaders brought to justice, Yu Hsien, governor 
of Shansi, met his end, which was not easy. 
There are two accounts. One is to the effect 
that the Empress sent him a red cord and gave 
him the privilege of hanging himself. Another 
account says he was beheaded^ and the execu- 
tioner made a slip with the first blow of the 
sword, when the victim was heard to say : " Ka 
tsoa liao! " (" You have cut wrong.") 

The Empress Dowager in her flight from 
Peking to Sianfu stopped as she passed through 
Shansi to see Yu Hsien, and took deep interest 
as he showed her where so many foreigners and 
Chinese Christians had been killed, and ex- 
pressed her high approval. 

In the chapel of the China Inland Mission at 
Shanghai, you may see a wall-tablet of bronze: 
" In Memory of Martyred Missionaries." 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 113 

I read down three long columns of names un- 
der " Shansi," and counted sixty- three, includ- 
ing children (some named Baby), as well as the 
missionaries in this pathetic roll. Below are the 
words : " And the Lord God shall wipe tears 
from off all faces." 

It is a strange event during the recent China 
Revolution, and worthy of the notice of the 
Christian and civilized world, that the daughter 
of Yu Hsien (governor of Shansi and mur- 
derer of missionaries) was one of the few who 
escaped from the slaughter of the Manchus in 
Sianfu, and she sought protection and found it 
among the missionaries ! 

When we climbed over the wall at Wei Hsien, 
the flames from the burning homes on every side, 
there were only three of us — Mr. Chalfant, Miss 
Boughton and I, but as we journeyed to the 
coast from the German mines, oh, what a pro- 
cession we made, winding over the hills and 
trailing across the landscape! We had first 
twenty-five men on horses, the Germans and Chi- 
nese officials ; then a shenza carrying a sick Ger- 
man; then Mr. Chalfant, riding on the sick Ger- 
man's horse; then ten carts loaded with the Ger- 
mans' goods (wet and dry) ; and, lastly, our es- 
cort of one hundred Chinese foot soldiers, which 
the city official had insisted upon our having with 
us. We did not want them, but there seemed 
no help for it. Every village we passed through 



114 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

we saw the people out in crowds, and these 
treacherous soldiers would say to the villagers : 
" Go ahead and attack the foreign devils if you 
like. We are under orders not to, so we don't 
dare, but we won't interfere if you do ! " And 
when we reached a river, we had to wait several 
hours till the two small flat-boats had carried all 
those wretched soldiers over. Had it not been 
for the Germans with their splendid big Mauser 
pistols, which inspired the Chinese with a whole- 
some fear as they heard the loud shots in the air, 
humanly speaking, we never would have reached 
the coast alive. 

At one place where we spent the night in a 
miserable inn, the people were very unfriendly, 
and stood in crowds all over the graves around 
the village gate as we entered, and in thick rows 
each side of the street as we passed through, 
their faces looking very hostile and determined. 
An old Christian man came to meet us here, and 
in low tones said to the muleteer : " Keep to the 
north road. You can't get through the south 
road. It is very dangerous." He had been with 
the rescue party, composed of Dr. Bergen and 
some German soldiers, who had started to our 
rescue, but were attacked and driven back to 
Kiao Chu City, where they waited for us. That 
night we slept little, being advised not to un- 
dress, as we might have to flee at any moment. 
The Germans had to fire in the air several times 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 115 

to scare away the Chinese, who came in like a 
horde when we entered the inn. At another 
place, where we halted for noon rest, one of the 
Germans rushed in waving both arms wildly in 
the air, exclaiming : " My horse is stolen ! " 
And they had a lively skirmish to recover the 
horse. 

Next day we were gladdened by the sight of 
our rescue party, Dr. Bergen riding up to meet 
us first. Then a handsomely uniformed German 
cavalry officer saluted us, and handed in our 
shenza a bottle of delightful spring water and 
a large cake of sweet chocolate. These were 
greatly relished, and we said we never tasted 
anything so delicious and refreshing. 

That night we rested in the Swedish Mission 
at Kiao Chu City. The missionaries had all fled, 
but we were nicely entertained by the German 
postmaster in charge of the place. Next morn- 
ing bright and early, we were off again, and ar- 
rived at the edge of the bay just in time to board 
the little government steamer bound for Tsing- 
tau, and just due to start. 

" Now, Miss Hawes, you are going to the 
safest place in China," said Dr. Bergen. There 
lay the German port " Tsingtau," in a crescent- 
shaped harbour, surrounded by a rampart of 
hills, and there we found blessed relief after our 
hard experiences. There were tears of joy shed 
when Mrs. Chalfant and the other missionaries 



116 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

came out to meet us, and we all praised God for 
our deliverance. 

We were a pretty shabby-looking little party, 
very weary, and without having any change of 
raiment for so many days on the journey. But 
the Bergens' hospitable home was opened to us, 
and we felt much better after our cleaning up 
and rest, and the Chinese tailor soon had us pro- 
vided with some decent clothes. The Ichowfu 
missionaries came the next day, and the house 
was filled to the attic with missionary refugees. 

" There is no other God that can deliver 



CHAPTER XIV 

PAOTINGFU MARTYRS 
" Greater love hath no man than this!" 

TO the glory of God, and in loving remem- 
brance of George Yardly Taylor, M. D., 
the Rev. Frank Edson Simcox, May Gil- 
son, his wife, and their children, Paul, Francis, 
and Margaret; Cortlandt Van Rennslaer Hodge, 
M. D., and Elsie Campbell Sinclair, his wife, 
who, together with many Chinese fellow-Chris- 
tians, gave up their lives for Christ at the burn- 
ing of the Presbyterian Mission premises on this 
spot, June 30, A.D., 1900." 

"It is enough for the disciple that he be as his 
Master." — Matt. 10:25. 

"Greater love hath no man than this that a 
man lay down his life for his friends.' , 

"Therefore are they before the throne of God, 
and serve Him day and night in His temple." 

The Martyrs' Memorial Monument, bearing 
the above inscription, was unveiled on April 22d, 
191 1, with appropriate ceremonies. It stands on 
the site of the Simcox home, where these five 

117 



118 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

brave missionaries and three children, the very 
flower of the Presbyterian Church, made their 
heroic sacrifice and won their martyrs' crown. 
The many loving friends, Chinese and foreign, 
who gathered around this monument on that 
bright spring day, felt they should indeed " put 
off their shoes from off their feet," for the place 
whereon they stood was " holy ground." They 
could not stand on that sacred spot without feel- 
ing stirred by the thought of such matchless love. 
These noble souls " yielded their bodies " that 
the Chinese might " not serve nor worship any 
god except their own God," and He was with 
them in their hour of victory. 

On June 30th, 1900, just five days after the 
riots at Wei Hsien, our Presbyterian mission- 
aries at Paotingfu were surrounded by a horde 
of Boxers, who had gathered up a rabble as they 
passed along to the Presbyterian compound, and 
carried bundles of " Kao Hang " stalks, which 
they used to start the fires and burn the buildings. 
The American Minister at the Capital did not 
have enough soldiers to guard the Americans 
at Peking, so the little company of missionaries 
ninety miles away in Paotingfu were absolutely 
helpless. They gathered in one house, and hav- 
ing no way of escape, they perished in the build- 
ing, which was set on fire by the Boxers. As 
the flames were flashing about, Mr. Simcox was 
seen walking with the hand of each of his boys 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 119 

in his. But it has been said : " The form of a 
Fourth appeared like the Son of God." Dr. 
Taylor, one of the gentlest of men, a worthy 
follower of the " Good Physician," it is said, 
raised his gun and told the mob that he might 
kill many of them if he should use it, but he 
" had not come to China to harm them, and he 
could not take their lives even when his own was 
at stake." Then, throwing away the gun, he 
soon perished. 

The fury of the mob continued until they had 
utterly destroyed every building in the com- 
pound, and had also murdered all the mission- 
aries of the American Board and China Island 
Mission, then in the city. Twenty-three white 
marble headstones tell the dreadful tale. In 
three graves are buried nineteen native Christian 
martyrs, making twenty-six in all who died for 
Christ. The story of Horace Pitkin, Miss Mor- 
rell and Miss Gould is well known. (Mrs. Pit- 
kin and child were in America then.) Mr. Pit- 
kin could have escaped, but he nobly remained to 
protect the others, and they all suffered martyr- 
dom together. Three English missionaries and 
a child also perished. During the Boxer out- 
break the C. I. Mission lost, it is reported, about 
135 missionaries and 53 missionary children, be- 
sides many thousands of Chinese Christians. 
" Of whom the world was not worthy." 
Some people say : " It does not pay to send 



120 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

out foreign missionaries." But " see what God 
hath wrought." " The blood of the martyrs is 
the seed of the church." 

To-day new buildings occupy the places of the 
old, and new missionaries are carrying on the 
precious work so dearly started by these heroic 
souls who shed their blood for Christ in China. 
Little children are playing about as the little Sim- 
cox children used to play, and where little Gladys 
Bagnall, five years old, -was the first to die in the 
little company of Congregational missionaries. 

It is said that a new missionary who arrived 
from America late one evening at Paotingfu 
scarcely slept that first night because of the sad 
associations. Rising in the early morning, she 
opened her window blind, and the first thing she 
saw was the row of twenty-three white tomb- 
stones, and nearly fainted at the pathetic sight. 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform." 

We cannot understand these mysteries. The 
thought of these precious lives sacrificed in 
China during the Boxer war is simply stunning 
to our sensibilities. We only know that the 
church of Christ, baptized in this precious blood, 
has risen triumphant in China over all her ene- 
mies. Our missions at Paotingfu, Peking, Wei 
Hsien, and all over Shantung and other Prov- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 121 

inces, have doubled their force of workers; in- 
creased their property ; the native Christians now 
number three hundred thousand, which is three 
times as many as before the riots of 1900. 

Besides these actually baptized, there is an 
enormous constituency estimated at over three 
millions who know the value and feel the power 
of the religion of Jesus Christ. Also, we re- 
joice because of the American and English 
churches uniting in a more determined way to 
support and establish the work of God in China 
on everlasting foundations. 

Rev. James E. Craighead, with Mrs. Bessie 
Corbett Craighead, his wife, visited Paotingfu at 
the time of the unveiling of the Martyrs' Me- 
morial monument, and speaks of the change in 
the attitude of the Chinese towards the mission- 
aries. Many of the Boxer leaders were executed, 
but the majority of the rioters were treated with 
consideration ; their city was spared, and, " as 
one of the marks of their appreciation of Rev. 
J. Walter Lowrie's gracious intercessions on 
their behalf, he was presented with sixteen acres 
of land admirably located, for the Presbyterian 
mission." The new church has a spacious audi- 
torium. The grounds of the old compound are 
now used as a Christian and foreign cemetery. 
The graves of five native Christian martyrs are 
here, and here also is the grave of Dr. Lowrie's 
mother, Mrs. Amelia Tuttle Lowrie, marked by 



122 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

a striking tablet erected in her memory by the 
citizens of Paotingfu and its suburbs. Mrs. 
Lowrie was the honored and dearly beloved 
senior member of the Paotingfu station, having 
come to China in 1854 in a sailing vessel with 
her husband, Rev. Reuben P. Lowrie, brother of 
Rev. Walter M. Lowrie, who suffered martyr- 
dom in South China July 19th, 1847. 

Rev. Craighead speaks also of the impressive 
gathering of Chinese Christians, crowding the 
place where the Boxers once raged, and now re- 
peating the " Lord's Prayer " and singing at the 
Martyrs' monument: 

" O God, to us may grace be given 
To follow in their train ! " 



CHAPTER XV 
RETURN TO AMERICA 

THREE days after arriving in Tsingtau, I 
left for America, taking with me little 
Margaret Chalfant, who was then 
twelve years old. The mission at Wei Hsien be- 
ing burned to the ground, and there being no 
hope of rebuilding and taking up our work for 
at least six months, I decided to strike out for 
the more peaceful shores of my native country 
to wait till the war was over, and replenish my 
lost outfit. 

Arriving first at Shanghai, we were told that 
there were placards posted up : " Kill all for- 
eigners! " and that if we should hear the fire bell 
strike eight times, we must go at once to the 
Astor House, where the Volunteers would pro- 
tect us. One night we heard seven bells, and the 
next morning concluded it wasn't desirable to 
wait any longer in Shanghai for our steamer 
for America, which was not due to start for 
nearly two weeks. So we boarded a little 
steamer for Japan, our party consisting of Mrs. 
Faries and her four boys, Rev. and Mrs. J. A. 
Fitch and their two little sons, Mrs. Crossette, 

123 



124. NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

little Margaret Chalfant and myself. We were 
glad to see Dr. Fades, who had secured good 
quarters for us at Nagasaki and met us that 
rainy day when we landed. We put up in the 
big roomy schoolhouse of the Dutch Reformed 
Mission, empty because of vacation time. There 
was no furniture but the big broad tables and 
benches, one or two chairs and a small stove for 
cooking. We soon collected some necessities 
from the Japanese shops, however, and were 
very happy together. Oh, the blessed relief of 
being in a country where there was no war ! Lit- 
tle Margaret and I lay on our rustic Japanese 
straw mattress, rented at ten cents a night, 
spread on the floor, and we could see out over 
the beautiful harbour where the ships lay, and 
the bright lights, and up at the bright twinkling 
stars overhead. 

Little Hugh Fitch in the next room, however, 
wasn't very well, and we heard him wailing: 
" Oh, mamma, I wish I could go to my own little 
bed! I don't like to sleep on a table! " 

It was so pathetic to have that child longing 
for "his own little bed," that I determined to 
raise a bed from somebody for that boy after I 
got home, or I would know the reason why. 

" BACK FROM BLOODY CHINA ! " 

That was the headline in the newspapers the 
day after I landed in Pittsburg, August 13th, 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 125 

1900. We were met and joyfully welcomed by 
our dear friends, who had been so anxious about 
us. The newspaper reporters were attentive 
also, and had the Boxer story without delay. 
Owing to the intense heat, however, my sister 
and family had gone to the seashore, so I went 
next day to join them at a pleasant place called 
Center Moriches on Long Island. 

Too sacred to express was the precious meet- 
ing when our good Father brought two sisters 
together, and permitted the weary traveller to 
see the faces of those most dear on earth, and 
gave relief to their anxiety, after the years of 
separation and trial. 

"Home! the safe and blissful shelter 
Where is glad and full content, 
And companionship of kindred ; and the 
Treasures early rent. 
From your holding shall be given back 
More precious than before. 
Oh ! you will not mind the journey 
With such blessedness in store, 
When the road leads home ! " 



CHAPTER XVI 
MISSIONARY WORK AT HOME 

AS soon as I arrived home, I was kept 
pretty busy trying to persuade people 
everywhere that there were still some 
good people in China, and that they were not all 
like the Boxers. My own beloved " Shadyside 
Presbyterian Church " had stood loyally back 
of me with their support and prayers while I 
was in China, and had also raised $1,500 to re- 
pair the " Ladies' Home," which I left in ashes 
at Wei Hsien. They naturally felt disheartened 
about providing a home for me in such a danger- 
ous location, and they asked Elder Pitcairn, be- 
fore I arrived home, not to send the money to 
China, for they had heard of the burning of our 
Mission. So, when I returned home, barely es- 
caped from Wei Hsien with only the clothes on 
my back, Elder Pitcairn sent me a cheque for 
$450, saying that was the portion of the $1,500 
which the givers wished him to " send to Miss 
Hawes." The rest of the money he had sent 
at their request, to the aid of the " South Side 
Presbyterian Church." I went at once to see 
126 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 127 

my pastor, Rev. Richard S. Holmes, D.D., and 
gave him that cheque for $450, and said : " This 
money doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the 
Lord. That house must be rebuilt." He agreed 
with me, and worked vigorously to raise the rest 
of the money needed to rebuild a home for the 
Shadyside missionary in China. The Board 
wrote to my pastor that they had divided up 
the work of rebuilding the Wei Hsien mission 
station among the churches, asking each church 
to raise a certain portion for rebuilding certain 
houses. This was a splendid way of having the 
Wei Hsien mission become an investment of 
many of God's people at home, and blessed by 
their united gifts and prayers, the Wei Hsien 
mission stands today a beautiful triumph over 
Satan's darts. 

The Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg 
was asked to give a certain portion of money 
needed to rebuild the " Woman's Hospital," 
which they gave, and we have a far better hos- 
pital now for the poor sick women than we had 
in the old days before the riots. The Pt. 
Breeze Church was asked to give $1,500 to re- 
build the Boys' High School. The elder tele- 
phoned me, asking me to speak on Sabbath 
morning in the Pt. Breeze Church for that cause. 
I was dismayed at the idea of speaking in a big 
city church on Sabbath morning, and tried to 
beg him to excuse me. 



128 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 



" Well, Miss Hawes," was the answer, " the 
people won't give that money unless you present 
the cause. You have been there and can tell 
them about the school, but they will not take in- 
terest and give unless you do." 

Then I went, and two good earnest women 
were praying for me on that Sabbath morning 
during the entire time that I spoke for our dear 
boys in China, before that large city church 
crowded with God's people, who had begun to 
think it didn't pay to give money to have mis- 
sion stations burnt up by the Boxers. The 
prayers were answered, and the Holy Spirit 
opened their hearts, so the collection amounted 
to $900. Checks were sent in through the week 
for the rest of the portion asked — $1,500, and 
now we have the " Point Breeze Academy for 
Boys " in the place of the old despoiled school 
building. Sixty pupils in attendance, and I wish 
the Pt. Breeze people could have seen them, on 
Christmas morning last, come in a body, bright 
young fellows, to thank us for their tablets and 
lead pencils sent them from the " Pittsburg 
Branch." 

When Dr. Holmes presented the Board's re- 
quest for the Shadyside Church to give a portion 
of money to rebuild a home for their missionary, 
the people took interest again, and gave the por- 
tion asked of them, with the provision that it 
should be a home for their missionary, and that 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 129 

it should be called " The Shadyside Home." 
When I came back to Wei Hsien, and was al- 
lowed to live in this beautiful restful home, I 
have many times been grateful to God for this 
blessing provided by my good friends. The 
country evangelistic work is most precious. I 
would not change it for any other on the mis- 
sion field, if I could help it, but it is no fairy 
tale to stand the strain and sometimes real hard- 
ships connected with itinerating in China. And 
I tell you it is very sweet to find rest and com- 
fort in a nice home in the compound, after a 
trying country trip. When I found the tile roof 
was leaking too badly for repair, the wood be- 
neath rotting and threatening to collapse and 
fall in on me, the Shadyside people again con- 
tributed and sent me the means to put on a 
good new corrugated iron roof. So now on 
rainy days and nights, I " laugh at the storm," 
and listen to the pleasant pattering of the little 
raindrops with no fear of the ceiling dropping 
on my head, or having to run with my dish pan 
or bath tub to catch the drips. 

It was my privilege to visit many of the home 
churches, and I wish there were space to tell of 
all the loving kindness shown me in every part 
of the country where I was invited to tell the 
story of our escape. From my own church, I 
went through ten presbyteries, visiting almost 
every church in their bounds, and with the help 



130 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

of the earnest good women in the foreign mis- 
sion societies organized new mission bands and 
societies. Mrs. C. P. Turner, former president 
of the Philadelphia Foreign Society, arranged 
for me a fine trip through the Synod of Tennes- 
see. This gave me some very lovely and some 
very unique experiences. Part of the journey 
was over very high mountains where no buggy 
could possibly travel; so, mounting a yellow 
mule, I rode with the missionary who rode a 
black mule over the mountains to his mission, 
twelve miles away, called Big Laurel, N. C. We 
forgot to provide ourselves with lunch, and on 
the way I grew so hungry I could have eaten the 
very leaves of the forest, but the missionary 
called to a woman standing by a tiny cabin : 

" Have you any corn bread ? " 

She replied : " I haven't any hot bread. I 
have some cold bread ! " 

She gladly sold us a huge piece for ten cents. 
It was as heavy as a stone, but ah ! how good it 
tasted. Next day we had an all-day meeting, and 
those sturdy mountaineers, dressed in calico and 
sun-bonnets, walked in from their little cabins, 
some of them seven miles distant, to attend. 
How they did listen, and how some of them did 
rub snuff and spit ! But when the story reached 
the point of climbing over the wall at Wei Hsien, 
they were so absorbed they forgot to spit ! And 
they gave twenty dollars in their collection for 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 131 

foreign missions. Next day my yellow mule 
carried me six miles to Allanstand, another pic- 
turesque spot in the beautiful mountains, where 
the little children sang so sweetly: 

" There is no Friend like the lowly Jesus ; 
No, not one. No, not one ! " 

Then a black mule carried me for ten miles, 
fording a very deep stream, and over the high 
mountains, the mail carrier my guide, down to 
the railroad, where I just caught a freight train 
going to my next place — Hot Springs. I found 
the Presbyterian preacher, Rev. F. W. Jackson, 
once a Shantung missionary, just ready with his 
family to enjoy a splendid dinner of baked beans, 
and they were very delicious and refreshing to 
the weary traveller, stiff from the long mule-back 
ride. In the afternoon the preacher conducted 
me to Paint Rock, a place six miles up the rail- 
road, where we had a little school-house full of 
interested hearers after our evening meal with 
the missionary ladies. Mr. Jackson warned me 
before I began to speak to the people that the 
last train was due at eight o'clock, returning to 
Hot Springs, and to cut my talk short if I did 
not wish to walk six miles, by missing that train. 
But, inspired by the many uplifted eager faces, 
and the great subject of China, time and trains 
were entirely forgotten, until a whistle sounded, 



132 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

and I saw a few nodding to each other as much 
as to say, " There is the train ! " With a part- 
ing request that they should all pray for China, I 
seized my cloak and dashed for the door and 
out into the darkness. 

Mr. Jackson followed me, calling : " Miss 
Hawes, Miss Hawes ! " 

But I plunged ahead, not heeding his cries, 
and fell headlong, face downward, into a big 
ditch, which was fortunately dry, so I was not 
hurt or wet, and scrambling up, with one more 
last rush, I got to the little station just in time 
to see the train go by, which was only a freight 
train, after all! Mr. Jackson with his lantern 
and the congregation appeared soon, and told 
me how much they " enjoyed the talk," and we 
all laughed together when the real train came 
along to carry us over those six miles home. 

The next morning I was struck with one of 
the earnest faces before me in the Sabbath 
School of the Dorland Institute, a school for 
mountain boys. This boy's name was Percy 
Peck, a bright boy of about twelve years. He 
looked so much like my dear nephew at home 
that I had a little talk with him after service. 
That evening in the Presbyterian Church, Rev. 
Jackson said very earnestly : " Now, you have 
all heard about the work in China, and I feel 
sure some of us here would like to show our love 
to Christ. Are we going to let those old women 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 133 

in China go into heaven, and any of us be left 
out? Let us make this meeting tonight mean 
something for us! Who will come out on the 
Lord's side tonight? In the silence that fol- 
lowed, Percy Peck, my dear little mountain boy, 
arose, his face all shining, and prayer was of- 
fered for him. Next morning he said to me : "I 
will always be a Christian man. That meeting 
last night did a great deal for me ! " 

The mountain schools in the South are gather- 
ing in some very precious jewels for our Master. 

On my way, Mrs. Campbell, a returned mis- 
sionary from Africa, told me she had spoken in 
a missionary meeting where one of the ladies 
asked her: 

" Are you the Miss Campbell who was 
drowned in Siam? " 

In all my travels, I never met anybody like 
that who thought missionaries could go through 
anything, even drowning, and still live to tell 
the tale, but I have met the most cordial, sympa- 
thetic hearts, and found rest and refreshment in 
kind, hospitable homes everywhere I went. And 
I never failed to get the ready substantial aid I 
asked for to help my missionary co-workers out 
in China to set up housekeeping again. Hugh 
Fitch got his bed, and the first woman's prayer 
meeting after the riots at Wei Hsien was held on 
a bright new rag carpet, spread on the ground, 
to the great delight of the Chinese women who 



134 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

sat upon it, a gift from the First Presbyterian 
Church of Allegheny to Mrs. Mateer, who led 
the meeting, and who was the first woman mis- 
sionary to venture back to Wei Hsien after the 
riots. How glad the Chinese Christians were 
to see the missionaries back again! They cried 
for joy, and gathered quickly to pour out their 
hearts in gratitude to God. 

While at home I remembered my Chinese 
teacher Wang, who had done such faithful work 
as teacher and evangelist, but who longed to fin- 
ish his college course, saying : " I feel like a 
man who has not eaten enough. I am hungry 
for the rest of my course." 

The money was furnished by a Christian gro- 
cer for this good object. He handed me $200 in 
gold, saying it was left by his dying wife for 
God's work in China. This sacred bequest was 
well invested. " Wang Yuan Teh " was thus 
enabled to finish his college course, and gradu- 
ated with the highest honours of his class. Dr. 
Calvin Mateer found him such a valuable assist- 
ant in his work of translation of the Scriptures 
into Chinese, that he retained him for that work 
and provided another teacher for me named 
Feng, who was also an acceptable evangelist. 

After the death of Dr. Mateer, Wang was 
chosen as professor in the college, and he still 
holds this position. He is also an elder in the 
church, and often preaches in the chapel. His 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 135 

sermons are clear and earnest and listened to 
with attention. He has a neat home and a very 
happy family, his wife being a High School 
graduate and one of our best Christian teachers. 
They have two bright little sons, whom they have 
dedicated to God's service. 

We have just received the good news of the 
success of two of our good college boys, and 
their brave loyalty to God under very trying cir- 
cumstances. " Sze I Suen " (or Ernest, as we 
call him), one of our very bright and earnest 
Christian college students, sails next week for 
America, where he will be received as a student 
at Yale University, having successfully passed 
his examinations at the Imperial University at 
Peking. This is in accordance with the 
agreement between the United States and 
China, after the Boxer war, that China 
should educate young men to be sent to 
American or English Christian colleges in- 
stead of paying indemnity money to the United 
States, as other nations demanded. Ernest is 
the first student to go under this agreement from 
our Presbyterian Shantung University, and we 
are rejoicing over this, and ask you to pray for 
him. This young man appeared at the Chinese- 
English school at Chefoo when he was a boy of 
ten, and the teacher, the late Rev. George Corn- 
well, of our Presbyterian mission, admitted him 
most cordially, not only to the school, but also 



136 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

as a member of his own family, when Ernest's 
-heathen parents disowned him because of his be- 
lief in Christ. He was very studious, and Mrs. 
Cornwell taught him English and let him eat at 
the same table with her children. From that 
time all through his course in school and college 
he has showed gratitude and appreciation for all 
the help he has received from the missionaries, 
and while at Peking he held to his Christian 
principles and refused to worship the tablet of 
Confucius. 

" Yi Shing Lin " is another loyal Christian, a 
graduate of our college at Tengchow, who ac- 
cepted a position as teacher in the Provincial 
School at Honan, at a high salary. Upon his ar- 
rival, the official received him with respect, and 
said : " Here are your pupils. You will first 
conduct them to the temple and worship Con- 
fucius, and then return and formally open 
school." Great was his amazement when our 
loyal Christian graduate refused to prostrate 
himself at the feet of Confucius, saying he was 
willing to do everything else, but he could not 
consent to worship any but the true God! For 
three long hours they talked the matter over, but 
our Christian graduate was firm and true to God, 
and thereby lost his position. The official, how- 
ever, could not afford to lose the good teacher 
and retained him as tutor to his own sons 
through the year, allowing him to worship God 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 137 

according to his own conscience. At the close 
of the year he went to Paotingfu, where he is 
teaching in the military college. He has higher 
plans, however, for he is preparing to enter one 
of our theological seminaries with the view of 
entering the ministry. 

There is wonderful change now in China, a 
broader outlook being taken by the influential 
classes of the Chinese. Hundreds of interested, 
intelligent people attend the daily and hourly 
preaching services in Chinanfu, and our mis- 
sionaries are all greatly encouraged. 



138 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 
"THE MISSIONARY" 

" My soul is not at rest. There comes a strange 
And secret whisper to my spirit. Like 
A dream of night that tells me I am on 
Enchanted ground. Why live I here? 
The vows of God are on me, and I may not stop 
To play with earthly shadows, or pluck earthly 

flowers, 
Till I my work have done, and rendered up 
Account. The voice of my departed Lord : 

* Go teach all nations/ from the Eastern world 
Comes on the night air, and awakes my ear. 

And I will go. I may not longer doubt 

To give up friends, and home, and idle hopes, 

And every tender tie that binds my heart 

To thee — my country. Why should I regard 

Earth's little store of borrowed sweets. I sure 

Have had enough of bitter in my cup, 

To show that never was it His design, 

Who placed me here, that I should live at ease, 

Or drink at pleasure's fountain. Henceforth then 

It matters not if storm or sunshine be 

My future lot ; bitter or sweet my cup : 

I only pray, ' God fit me for my work ; 

God make me holy, and my spirit nerve 

For the stern hour of strife.' Let me but know 

There is an arm unseen that holds me up, 

An eye that kindly watches all my path: 

Till I my weary pilgrimage have done. 

Let me but know I have a Friend that waits 

To welcome me to glory, and I joy 

To tread the dark and death-fraught wilderness." 



CHAPTER XVII 
RETURN TO CHINA 

WHEN I left China, the people asked: 
" When will you come back to us? " 
Just after I landed in America, the 
people asked : " When are you going back to 
China?" 

Although it is wonderfully sweet to be in the 
homeland, yet every missionary feels the " East 
a-calling " pretty strong by and by, and so it 
came to pass that Thanksgiving Day, 1904, 
found me back in old China, and celebrating 
" Thanksgiving " with our good missionaries 
(Presbyterian and Baptist) at Rev. Pruitt's 
home in Tengchow, a quaint little city by the sea. 
I had sailed this time with Dr. and Mrs. Watson 
M. Hayes and their little son Ernest; had been 
welcomed in the East Shantung annual meeting 
and received the kindly hand grasp of our grand 
old pioneer missionary, Dr. Hunter Corbett, at 
Chefoo, and had been cordially invited by the 
members of the Tengchow mission station, both 
Chinese and foreign, to join them, and Dr. and 
Mrs. W. F. Seymour with their bright little baby 
139 



140 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

boy had taken me in their hospitable home and 
made me very comfortable and happy. 

It was very sweet to give thanks for all the 
mercies of the past year, and I felt especially 
grateful to God, who had once more entrusted 
me with His precious message of salvation, and 
brought me safely over the deep waters to this 
great country of China, whose hoary antiquity 
stretches away back through ancient history, and 
into the mists of fable for unknown thousands of 
years, and yet the majority of whose vast mil- 
lions have not yet been reached by the Gospel. 
Don't you hear their souls' sad cry, " The har- 
vest is past, the summer is ended, and we are 
not saved ! " 

A great change had come over China since I 
had been chased out by the mob in 1900. The 
allied forces had rescued the missionaries and 
legations (just in time to prevent their being all 
blown up by the undermine powder blast the 
Empress had nearly completed under them), and 
they had put an end to the Boxer War. The 
tired regiments of soldiers had received a joyous 
welcome when they entered the British Lega- 
tion, and they were revived by hot pony soup — 
the best there was to offer them. The Chinese 
Government and people had been conquered, and 
the terms of peace were very grievous, so they 
had learned their lesson. 

The proud Empress Dowager had failed to 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 141 

annihilate the missionaries and other foreigners, 
and had been a fugitive herself for a time. His 
Excellency Ching Shan says in his diary writ- 
ten August 14th : 

" At the hour of the Monkey (4 P. M.), Duke 
Lan burst into the Palace, unannounced, and 
shouted : " Old Buddha, the foreign devils have 
come ! " Close upon his footsteps came Kang 
I, who reported that a large force of turbaned 
soldiery were encamped in the grounds of the 
Temple of Heaven. 

" They are foreign devils. Your Majesty 
must escape at once, or they will murder you ! " 

They fled at dawn of day in common carts. 
For the first time in her life, her hair was done 
up in the Chinese fashion (twisted in a knot). 

" Who could ever have believed that it would 
come to this?" she said. 

When the favorite wife of the Emperor 
pleaded that he be allowed to remain in Peking, 
she shouted to the eunuchs on duty : 

" Throw her down the well! " 

In vain the Emperor fell at his knees in sup- 
plication. She was cast down the large well just 
outside the Palace. Then they fled in common 
carts as poor country folk, and made their way 
to the ancient Northern Capital, Si-An-Fu, 
Shensi Province. 

A Peking missionary says : " The Emperor, 
who for two years was a prisoner in his island 



143 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

palace, continually opposed the insane course of 
the empress dowager. He exposed himself to 
scorn and insult by tearfully protesting against 
the declaration of war in June. When he heard 
that the Allies had entered Peking, he entreated 
that he might be allowed to go in person to the 
legations to sue for peace. He was dragged an 
unwilling exile from his Capital that August 
morning. Gladly would he recross the snow- 
clad mountains, and in the capital of his ances- 
tors seek to bring peace and prosperity to his 
distracted country." 

During their absence, the temples and palaces 
in the Forbidden City were occupied by foreign 
soldiers. Even Bible classes and Y. M. C. A. 
meetings were held by Christian teachers right 
in the very rooms the Dowager had lived in. At 
one of these meetings a young soldier, Mr. Chris- 
tian, was converted, joined the Y. M. C. A., and 
has been doing Christian work ever since among 
soldiers. 

The Empress hated all foreigners, but she 
smoked foreign cigarettes and lighted her pal- 
aces with electric light, and the soldiers found 
under the Emperor's bed a large box containing 
a foreign mechanical doll that could walk. The 
British soldiers felt sorry for the Emperor, and 
saved many boxes of his valuables, which they 
returned to him when the Court returned from 
Si-An-Fu. However, the Empress must have 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 143 

missed some of her large and costly vases and 
jardineres, as it is said the soldiers tied ropes 
around their necks and used them for water 
buckets. 

His Excellency Ching Shan closed his diary, 
saying: " The Empress has fled. All the women 
of my family have taken poison and died. There 
is no one to prepare my evening meal ! " Ching 
Shan was murdered that evening by his unfilial 
sons, who pushed him down a well in order to 
secure his money. 

The Taku forts, which defended the sea en- 
trance to Peking, were razed and the railroad to 
the Capital occupied by foreign troops. Indem- 
nity had to be paid. New Commercial treaties 
were made. Governor Yuan Shih K'ai had pro- 
tected the Shantung missionaries, and while on 
that Thanksgiving Day, 1904, we sorrowed for 
the loss of precious lives in China, yet we all re- 
joiced that the Boxer War was over, and the re- 
action had set in, so that peace and quiet seemed 
assured to the missionary, and the people were 
ready for new ideas and teaching. 

The college had been transferred from Teng- 
Chow to Wei Hsien, Dr. Calvin Mateer had re- 
signed the presidency, Dr. Watson Hayes had 
succeeded him, and then Dr. Paul D. Bergen 
had become President. But Dr. Mateer was 
deep in the work of translating the Scriptures, 
and needed my Chinese teacher Wang to help 



144 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

him. He justly sent me an excellent teacher in 
his place named Feng to help me refresh my Chi- 
nese language. Also, my good old cook Lii, who 
had been so faithful to us on the day of the riots 
and suffered so, hearing I was in Teng-Chow, 
mounted a donkey and rode for six days from 
his home in the interior, and I was glad to see 
his good old friendly, smiling face once more, 
and hear him say he was going to stay and help 
me. 

The following letter from Wang, written in 
the scanty English which he had picked up him- 
self (as it was not then in the college course) 
will be of interest : 



" Wei Hsien 1904 — 9 — 29 
■' Dear Miss Hawes, 

" I am very gladly that you came back from 
America. I thanks God for I can see you in 
this world. All Chinese women that you know 
hope you come back bequickly. Because we 
overheard that you go to Tengchow, not Wei 
Hsein. That makes us very sorrow. In five 
months ago, I am already decided to help Mr. 
Mateer translation the Holy Bible. I think if 
I can help Mr. Mateer. Well I cannot help you 
to preaches the Gospel. Therefore I told Mrs. 
Chalfant if you come Back Wei Hsien I am 
very wish my wife Pan Wang to help you read 
Bible and preach. But you are already Decided 
go to Tengchow. I think she must not wish go. 
And I saw Liu Wen Chi, he said unto me He 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 145 

must go to help you. I am praying my God 
help you in every day. 

" Yours lovely 

" Wang Yuan Teh." 

After Dr. Mateer had told Wang he could not 
spare him from the work of translation, this was 
the result : 

" Miss Hawes, 

" Mr. Mateer Determined not let me go and 
write a letter to you. Beg you permitting him. 
I must help him translation the holy Bible. I 
dont Know if I can Burden this heavy laden or 
not. If he must want me help He must give 
me a good nourishment. My Parents and my 
family all pretty well. Only one Business make 
me very sorrow for them want me help is too 
much for theirs debts. But I graduated only 
six months. How I can getting so much cash 
to help them. I pray my God save me. I Be- 
lieved Him must save me. My Parents give 
Thanks to you for you help me graduated from 
Teng-chow College. The wemen of my village 
that you knew and my family joints me in kind- 
est regards. 

" Wang Yuan Teh." 

I was not surprised after reading these letters 
to hear from Dr. Mateer that he found Wang a 
"pretty expensive luxury," for he had to pay his 
poor family's debts, but he couldn't afford to do 
without him. This is just a single instance of 
how the poor Christian students who graduate 



146 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

and begin to earn a living, are taxed to support 
so many of their poor relations, and no wonder 
they grow discouraged and feel the " Burden " 
is " heavy laden." However, as more of their 
people become educated and Christianized, it is 
easier. 

A young graduate from the Carlisle, Pa., In- 
dian School, United States, settled with his fam- 
ily in the West, industriously built a neat little 
cabin, and cultivated his few acres around it, 
putting into practice his newly acquired knowl- 
edge of white man's ways. Just as his crops 
were ready for harvest, a swarm of his relations 
in grease and blanket appeared and camped down 
upon his place, where they remained until they 
had eaten up all his corn and everything else he 
had so carefully raised. He even had to hide his 
cows to keep them from being stolen when those 
Indians left. 

These young Christian graduates need our 
prayers as they start out in life, that they may 
be brave in their struggles to uplift their people 
and establish Christian homes. 

The first trip I took to the country villages 
around Tengchow I visited a Christian home, 
where many heathen people crowded in from 
curiosity, and we talked the Gospel to them and 
tried to teach them. A young woman came in 
whose face was very thickly powdered and 
painted, and as she left the room I thought I had 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 147 

never seen a more heathen countenance. But she 
listened outside, and oh! the blessed change that 
took place when the Holy Spirit touched her 
heart! As the women left, I was about to go, 
too, but she ran in, her face all eager and alight, 
and pressing my knees with both her hands, said : 
" Don't go yet ! You must teach me. I will 
learn anything you teach me. What is it ? Jesus 
loves me ? I love Jesus ! " Oh, it is precious to 
help these souls to know Christ their Saviour. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
RETURN TO WEI HSIEN 

FOR nearly a year I did country work in 
the villages around Tengchow, Feng and 
my Bible woman and old cook Lu faith- 
fully assisting. Then I was transferred back to 
Wei Hsien, my old camping ground, and, strange 
to say, the Chalfants having gone to America on 
furlough, I occupied their house ; and so " I lay 
me down in peace and slept " in the very spot 
from which we were driven by Boxers, June 
25 th, 1900. 

" In this place will I give peace, saith the 
Lord." What a glorious change had taken place 
in Wei Hsien ! Twice as many missionaries now 
and a splendid compound of fifty acres of 
ground with so many fine new buildings. The 
college with its bell tower, the High Schools, 
and hospitals all so flourishing, and the mission- 
ary homes so complete. The prettiest of all the 
homes, however, is the " Shadyside Home," at 
the south end of the compound. Come and see. 
The beautiful broad front porch with the frag- 
rant blossoming vines over it holds so many peo- 
148 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 149 

pie, and the Chinese women come and have some 
happy tea-drinkings here. The little children 
come, too, with their cute little gay clothes, and 
they like to pick the pretty posies in the garden, 
and after the cakes and many bowls of tea are 
enjoyed, they love to sing their hymns of praise, 
and I just love to listen to them, too. 

The work at Wei Hsien is all one. It is all 
the precious work of our dear Lord, the educa- 
tional, the medical and the evangelistic. This 
splendid college, now called the " Shantung 
Christian University," with its three hundred and 
more students, every graduate for forty-seven 
years a Christian, sends out trained Christian 
men all over China. Each year the demand in- 
creases for our graduates. The college draws 
its students from the High School, and these 
High Schools in turn draw their students from 
the country Christian schools, and back of all 
these schools are the homes of the Chinese in 
the country villages, where the evangelistic mis- 
sionaries visit and do Christian work. Most im- 
portant is it then to keep the " fountain pure, 
that the streams may be pure." 

My work is the evangelistic, and so, four days 
after I arrived at Wei Hsien, I was off on my 
wheelbarrow to the country, and never stopped 
until January, going out through fifty-six vil- 
lages, all around the country, holding services in 
the home of every Christian, in many heathen 



150 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

homes, in the Chapels, and in the streets, and had 
the joy of seeing thirty-two families destroy their 
kitchen gods and join us in singing " Praise God 
from Whom All Blessings Flow ! " while we 
pasted up the calendar of Christian Sabbaths and 
helped them to set up the worship of the true 
God in their homes. 

Oh, what a welcome I received from these dear 
country people whom I love so well! What a 
joy to see the native Christians again and to find 
most of them so faithful, teaching others the 
way of life. It was very cheering to find some 
who had learned their first prayer from me be- 
fore the riots now doing faithful work as Bible 
women. That is what makes you feel it is worth 
while to come to China. 

In one village I visited a home where one of 
our school girls lived, and the poor girl was sad 
because her mother told her it was a " waste of 
time " to go to church, and was not willing for 
her to finish her course in the Wei Hsien High 
School. The circumstances in the little home 
were discouraging, and all the mother needed 
was encouragement and help by kind words and 
counsel. After a little service in her home, the 
whole family came out to the moonlight evening 
prayer-meeting and were blessed. The father 
and mother both died soon after that meeting 
when they had renewed their love to God; the 
daughter has graduated from our High School, 



a 




NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 151 

has done good work as a teacher, and is happily 
married to a Christian teacher, a graduate of 
the " Shantung Christian University." 

In another village I found one of our dear lit- 
tle school boys had upset a lamp and burnt his 
face badly. Before I came a stupid Chinese doc- 
tor (?) had smeared the poor child's face with a 
thick coating of black stuff, boiled bark of a tree. 
It was pitiful to see the little fellow as he put his 
hands together to salute me. All you could see 
were his eyes through slits made in that awful 
black mask over his face, while the pus trickled 
and dripped from the cracks. I applied a thor- 
ough dose of vaseline all over the hardened mix- 
ture on the child's face and exhorted the old 
grandmother not to let anyone rub that oint- 
ment off and gave her money to hire a barrow 
to take him next day to our hospital. The little 
fellow was delighted with a dolly and some mar- 
bles I gave him, and he repeated the Lord's 
Prayer with me. I saw him in our hospital later 
on, and his face was clear, and, under treatment, 
soon recovered. The doctor said he would have 
died from the infection of that awful stuff on 
his face if he had not come when he did. 

Itinerating is very necessary for reaching those 
in their homes who cannot afford to come to our 
compound or even go to a Bible Class in the 
country if they are too aged, or crippled, or blind. 
But throughout the winter I have many Bible 



152 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

Classes in the country, the women coming from 
miles around to attend, bringing their own coarse 
bread and joining in the expense of the hot soup. 
And your heart goes out to them, too, in love 
when you see them, after studying all day pa- 
tiently, gather for their evening meal, and bow 
reverently while one of them asks the blessing 
of God upon their food. They teach us lessons 
of patience and gratitude for our blessings. 

We had a wonderful revival at Wei Hsien 
during the year after I returned, which extended 
all over the country. It began in quiet prayer 
offered by native Christians and foreign mis- 
sionaries, definitely pleading for God's blessing 
upon the Christian Women's Conference held for 
ten days in the chapel. Over three hundred 
Christian women gathered in from over two 
hundred villages. Some aged ones had walked 
75 li to attend. At the opening meeting an elder 
of the Old China variety offered prayer and 
praised God that so many of these " useless 
creatures " had come to be instructed. The 
women did not resent his words, being raised on 
that kind of language, but I tell you it was an 
eye-opener to hear their discussions! If some 
of your American club women could have heard 
them, they would have been surprised and de- 
lighted with the display of good sense and ver- 
satility of suggestions and ideas coming from 
those humble Christian Chinese women in their 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 153 

simple toilettes of coarse blue calico. They dis- 
cussed " Foot Binding," " Dedicating Infants to 
God," " Showing Partiality for Boys Over 
Girls," etc., etc., etc., while the missionary ladies 
superintended this Conference and helped, yet 
there were excellent addresses by our educated 
Christian women, graduates of our schools and 
wives of the college professors. At the first sun- 
rise prayer-meeting they openly confessed all sins 
to God, breaking out in strong pleading and cry- 
ing till the room was filled with the sounds of 
this very torrent of prayer, and the blessing we 
had been praying for came to all present. At the 
close of this Conference the Christian women 
hastily scattered among a crowd of heathen 
women who were going to burn incense in a tem- 
ple, and they did splendid work in teaching them 
about the worship of the true God. Then they 
went to their homes, preaching as they went, 
like the disciples of old, and telling to all around 
what they had learned at the Conference. Since 
then I have kept a lookout for those women and 
found that nearly all were true to their promise 
to unbind their feet, and they have influenced 
many others to do the same, and study the Gos- 
pel. 

Then came Rev. H. A. Johnston, D. D., from 
America, and after some earnest prayer services 
for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon his work, 
we met on Sabbath morning in the Chapel, which 



154 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

was crowded with the Chinese students and 
church members, as well as heathen. The pres- 
ence of the Spirit was distinctly felt by all. No- 
body whispered. No one coughed. All were 
deeply moved. In the afternoon I met Mr. Fitch, 
who exclaimed : " Our prayers are answered ! 
All the college students "are praying and crying ! 
It's wonderful ! " Later on the same was re- 
ported of the girls and boys in the High Schools. 
After another day the beautiful harvest came; 
young people rising for prayer and saying they 
wished to be Jesus' disciples, asked to be bap- 
tized. Everybody went around with happy, shin- 
ing faces, both Chinese and foreigners. The 
Lord had visited us with a marvelous awakening 
such as was never known before in the history of 
Wei Hsien. 

The tide of revival spread over other parts of 
China. In Ts'ang Chou, a large city south of 
Tientsin, the Christian, medical students held 
prayer circles among the soldiers in hospitals, 
chapels, in the streets, and many striking testi- 
monies were given. One said : " What makes 
me shiver so at the thought of all my sins ? " An- 
other said: "I see two faces; one, the face of 
the enemy, full of baffled rage, and the other the 
face of Christ, full of pity and desire to bless. 
I wish to bow my head whilst He lays His hand 
on me. I want to give myself to Him to do with 
me as He will." One clutched his arm and said : 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 155 

" Why don't you pray for me ? I've come a hun- 
dred li. There is no one praying for me ! " 
Prayer brought peace to all these. 

I wish I could picture to you more clearly how 
these simple people hunger after the Word of 
God, and the surprising power in prayer, and 
remarkable wealth of illustrations. It is good to 
hear in belated China the phenomena of electric- 
ity and magnetism used to explain Christian 
truth. An elder, condemning unworthy motives 
among the Chinese workers, compared those who 
harbor them to a performing bear. " His master 
gives him a tasty morsel at the end of every trick. 
Like him are preachers who only preach for 
money." 

Another compared Christ and Christians to a 
magnet and iron filings. The nearer the filings 
are to the magnet the closer they stick to each 
other; and the further they are removed there- 
from, the less they hold together. " It is not the 
noise of the wind in the wires that carries the 
unseen message ; and the quiet Voice in the hearts 
of men is better than many sermons." 

Another said that men are a good deal like 
silkworms bound fast in cocoons pf sin which 
with careful toil we ourselves spin till helpless in 
the meshes. Like them, we need a new strong 
life to free us from our prison, and send us forth 
on new-found wings to enjoy the air of heaven. 

These meetings have done wondrous good in 



156 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

the way of creating mutual trust and confidence 
and fellow-working between Chinese and for- 
eigners. There is a better understanding all 
around and new life in churches, schools, and 
hospitals, at headquarters and far afield. 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE PLAGUE! UNDER QUARANTINE! 

CHINA has had some awful trials in the 
shape of floods, famine, plague and war 
in recent years. 

The plague came within 60 li of our compound 
two years ago. In one village, when a man came 
home from a visit, all his friends came to see 
him. and in two days they were all dead. Many 
deaths from plague occurred among the Chi- 
nese, so that it was thought best to quarantine 
our Wei Hsien Station for a while. The big 
gate of the compound was shut up, and a little 
opening only was used when anybody knocked 
for admittance. 

"Who are you?" 

" Where did you come from ? " 

" Is anyone sick in your village ? " 

" What's the matter with them?" 

These questions were asked by the gatekeeper 
if anybody outside put their head in the opening. 
If it happened to be somebody who was con- 
nected with the mission, and it was necessary to 
let them in, they were conducted directly from 
157 



158 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

the gate to an isolated row of rooms surrounded 
by barbed wire and a locked gate. Food and 
necessaries were sent to them for five days and 
the doctor examined each one daily. My cook 
was held up when he came back from a visit to 
his mother's village, and the next day I took 
pity on him and sent him a big bunch of fire- 
crackers and some matches to amuse himself 
with, and some story books. All the rest of the 
boys in quarantine were glad and sent me word 
they wanted some more story books. All the 
schools were disbanded and scholars sent home. 
Just after the quarantine began, Dr. Robert Ma- 
teer held services in a village 90 li away, and as 
he left, the people said they were " all praying 
for Miss Hawes to come and teach the Bible 
Class for women promised for the 20th of the 
first moon " (February 18). 

As there was no plague in all that region, I 
was allowed to go, after an application of the 
doctor's innoculating needle. So I broke quar- 
antine and went out in a shenza, as glad as any 
bird let loose from a cage. It is not in the blood 
of a free Western Pennsylvanian to stand being 
shut up in quarantine, and it was good to be out 
among the people again. But I was obliged to 
stay out for seven weeks before that quarantine 
was lifted at Wei Hsien. Although I was itiner- 
ating and teaching Bible classes all around in a 
district where there was not a single case of 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 159 

plague; in some places the people had not even 
heard of the plague ; yet it was best to take proper 
precautions, of course, in a large compound like 
ours, so I stayed out and continued my work. 
The classes were all very encouraging, and I felt 
repaid for the inconvenience of my money and 
supplies of food and religious literature for 
classes, etc., giving out too soon. We had the 
benefit of the intelligent help of the High School 
girls and college teachers in all these villages, as 
they had to stay home till the Wei Hsien quar- 
antine was off and the educational work started 
up again. They gave their services entirely free, 
saying it was their " duty to help the Heavenly 
Father's affairs." In one village the people knew 
I was coming, and they had whitewashed and 
swept out the chapel, and said : " Stay here with 
us! The longer the better. Stay six months 
and we will be glad." They brought me fresh 
eggs, and I got them all to dress up in their best 
and took their picture with my kodak. 

We visited some heathen homes where we had 
the joy of seeing the family destroy their kitchen 
god. This is pasted up over the cooking " Koa " 
— that is, on the wall near the great iron bowl 
where the food is cooked. This god presides 
over the household affairs, and every Chinese 
New Year he is worshipped and food placed be- 
fore him. Then he is torn off the wall and burned 
up, when he is supposed to go skyward and 



160 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

make a good report of the family. A new one 
is then pasted up who takes charge. 

The legend told about this kitchen god is as 
follows: He was once a man named Chang, 
who grew tired of his wife, though she was good 
and virtuous, so he put her out and married an- 
other who was a very base character and treated 
him so badly he was obliged to leave in a few 
months. Meantime his first wife, when cast out, 
had wandered sadly away and out through the 
open country, when suddenly she saw shining 
lumps on the ground before her. She gathered 
as many of them as she could carry and soon 
found a good home with an old woman who lived 
alone, for the shining lumps were pure gold. 

Then one day along came a beggar, very 
hungry and weary, whom she recognized at once 
as her husband, but he did not recognize her until 
she set before him a bowl of noodle soup, hot 
and savory, such as she knew he liked. Then a 
large brass hairpin fell from her hair. He saw 
it fall and was so overcome with shame as he 
saw it was one he had given his wife, and the 
thought of her serving him after he had cast her 
off, caused him to faint and fall into the fire. 
So he went up in smoke, and has ever since been 
worshipped as the kitchen god. When the Chi- 
nese learn to love the Lord Jesus, these ridiculous 
superstitions and false gods are given up, and 
they willingly paste up the calendar of Christian 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 161 

Sabbaths instead and set up the worship of the 
true God. 

" The race is not to the swift nor the battle 
to the strong, but China is being won by patient, 
constant, quiet working with these Orientals." 

Dr. Calvin Mateer lived to see the glorious 
fruits of his self-sacrifice and toil in the early 
days, when he landed in China after a fearfully 
trying voyage of six months in a sailing vessel 
which carried them around the Cape of Good 
Hope. He saw the splendid gathering of three 
hundred students, the college which was once 
only a few poor little street boys in Tengchow, 
taught in his home ; and as he preached on occa- 
sional Sabbaths in his faultless Chinese, it was 
no wonder his eyes were sometimes filled with 
tears of joy and pride. And these college stu- 
dents, as well as Chinese officials, and the college 
faculty did him honor on his seventieth birthday 
at the Wei Hsien chapel with congratulatory ad- 
dresses, and many handsomely inscribed souve- 
nirs, among them being two large lacquered in- 
scriptions on wood in black and gold which are 
now hung in the college. 

Dr. Mateer quietlv entered Heaven on Sep- 
tember 28th, 1908. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE CHINESE REVOLUTION 
ANCIENT CHINA WAKING UP 

" O, East is East and West is West, and never the 
twain shall meet, 
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great 

judgment seat; 
But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed 

nor birth, 
When two strong men stand face to face, 
Though they come from the ends of the earth." 

— Kipling. 

THIS great country, which is now in the 
throes of establishing itself as a repub- 
lic, is one of the oldest and mightiest 
kingdoms of the earth. When Moses led the 
Israelites through the wilderness, Chinese laws 
and literature excelled those of Egypt. It is 
said that " Wing Nang," an emperor of China 
one hundred years before David's time, composed 
classics which are still committed to memory. 
" While Homer was composing and singing the 
Iliad, China's blind minstrels were praising her 
ancient heroes, already buried thirteen centuries. 
162 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 163 

Before England was invaded by the Norman 
conquerors, China's literature was fully devel- 
oped. The Chinese invented firearms in the time 
of England's first Edward, and the art of print- 
ing five hundred years before Caxton was born. 
They made paper A. D. 150, and gunpowder 
about the dawn of the Christian era. A thou- 
sand years ago the ancestors of the present Chi- 
nese sold silks to the Romans and dressed in these 
fabrics when the inhabitants of the British Isles 
wore coats of blue paints and fished in willow 
canoes. Her great wall was built 220 years be- 
fore Christ was born in Bethlehem, and contains 
material enough to build a wall five or six feet 
high around the globe." 

In May, 1912, Mrs. R. M. Mateer and I took 
the railroad from Peking to Nan K'ou, and after 
visiting the Ming Tombs, went by rail through 
the magnificent scenery of the Nan K'ou Pass 
to a little station within four li of the Great 
Wall. This railroad joins Peking to Kalgan, 
has sharp curves, steep grades, long tunnels, and 
splendid smooth roadbed, all built by Chinese 
without foreign aid. This itself shows the vast 
changes taking place in China. Old China is 
gone and new China is emerging. In 1900 Rev. 
Mark Williams, with his wife and fellow mis- 
sionaries, who had composed the last company 
of missionaries that sailed around the Cape of 
Good Hope to China, reaching Kalgan February 



164 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

21, 1866, and who had done faithful mission 
work at Kalgan since that time, escaped across 
the desert of Gobi and after much suffering and 
untold privations reached the Russian frontier 
about two months from their leaving Kalgan. 
In 1902 Rev. Williams and wife returned to 
China and are now connected with the work in 
Tungchow. 

When we walked from the railroad station 
towards the Great Wall, a fierce wind blew 
against us so we could scarcely step, but we made 
our way up the beautiful winding roadways 
through the mountains, turning aside for the 
trains of camels which passed us by in haughty, 
picturesque awkwardness, and we were content 
to sit and rest beside the Great Wall and admire 
this most stupendous piece of work ever built 
by man. It is well called one of the wonders of 
the world. It took eight million men toiling for 
eight years to build it. It is 1,250 miles long 
and 35 feet high, and its course is irregular, but 
chosen without regard to natural obstacles, ex- 
tending clear across the whole northern limit of 
the huge empire, from the sea to the farthest 
western corner of the province of Kan Su. The 
Mongolians call it the " White Wall," the Chin- 
ese call it the " Ten-thousand-li-Wall," and it is 
the most gigantic defensive work in the world. 

A party of English tourists who were with us 
on our train, struggled against the furious winds 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 165 

and held on to their hats and the side of the wall, 
their clothing fluttering wildly, as they climbed 
to one of the strong turrets to get a view. These 
turrets were for the Chinese to patrol and keep 
watch against the Manchus; for, even in that 
early time, they invaded across the border and 
robbed the Chinese of their property and their 
women. This struggle to get rid of the Manchus 
is no new thing. 

The wall is built double, 21 feet thick, faced 
with huge dressed granite blocks, with stone 
rubble filled in between, and towers at frequent 
intervals. The top of the wall has a coping each 
side of exceedingly hard sun-dried brick. No 
such hard bricks are made now. The composi- 
tion must have been a secret with those ancient 
workmen which they have not handed down. 
Our tourist friends brought us specimens of it. 
Since the accession of the Manchu Dynasty in 
1644, the wall was allowed to fall into decay, 
and the railroad cuts through it shamefully. 

But it is still standing almost entirely — a last- 
ing monument to bear witness to the enterprising 
energy of the Emperor Chin Shih Hwang, who 
became king in 246 B. C, when only thirteen 
years of age ; but he was such a hustler he made 
everybody feel his influence. He chose Si An 
Fu as his capital and built there a magnificent 
palace, which was the wonder and admiration of 
his contemporaries. He constructed roads 



166 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

through the empire, formed canals and erected 
many public buildings. He marched with an 
army of 300,000 men against the Tartars and 
completely routed them. He subdued tribe after 
tribe of rebels till peace was restored and then 
began to reform the empire he had won. 

But the Chinese hated reforms at that time, 
the same as they hated the reforms of the poor 
Emperor Kwang Su before the Boxer riots. The 
long finger-nailed fossils of school-teachers were 
constantly holding up the heroes of the feudal 
times for the admiration of the people, and the 
Emperor Chin Shih Hwang (or Che Hwang-te) 
determined to break up the whole ancient feudal 
system, ordered the destruction of all books re- 
ferring to the past history of the empire. This 
decree was almost universally carried out, and 
many scholars were killed for failing in obedi- 
ence to it. The Chinese show you today a vil- 
lage built on the " Slope of the Burning Books," 
where the king made an enormous bonfire of the 
old Confucian books, and then made a deep pit 
where about three hundred luckless school- 
teachers were buried alive to their necks and 
heavy chariots driven over their heads. 

He could not, however, burn up the tablets of 
memory, and therefore many of these ancient 
writings were reproduced from memory and cut 
in stone which no fire could burn. Also many 
books were hidden in walls and preserved. The 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 167 

Great Wall was begun under this king's super- 
vision, but he died before its completion. 



BRIEF STATEMENT OF EVENTS PRIOR TO 
REVOLUTION 

From the failure of the Boxer movement, the 
Empress learned at a bitter cost some much- 
needed lessons and began issuing reform edicts, 
showing entirely new policy, and sincerely striv- 
ing to establish her popularity and pacify the 
people at large ; but for all that, she remained to 
the end faithful in her affection for the Boxer 
leaders, and to the last she never failed to praise 
their loyalty to her person and the patriotic brav- 
ery of their attempt to expel the foreigner. But 
she was forced to acknowledge that until China 
should be strong enough, all anti-foreign pro- 
ceedings must be suppressed. It is said that " so 
masterly were her methods of dealing with the 
necessities of the situation, and so forcibly did 
the style and arguments of her decrees appeal 
to the literati, that they carried very general con- 
viction. Even the most bigoted Confucianists 
were won by her subtle suggestions as to what 
would have been the attitude of the Sage himself 
if confronted by such problems as the Nation 
had now to face." Her edicts, issued from Si- 
An-Fu before her return to Peking, show that 
she realized clearly the dangers which threatened 



168 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

the Manchu rule. A decree was also issued in 
the name of the Emperor, a pathetic admission 
of the Throne's guilt, a plea for the sympathy 
of his people, and an exhortation to return to 
ways of wisdom. It concludes : 

" We, the lord of this Empire, have failed ut- 
terly in warding off calamities from our people, 
and we should not hesitate for one moment to 
commit suicide, in order to placate our tutelary 
deities and the gods of the soil, but we cannot 
forget that duty of filial piety and service which 
we owe to our sacred and aged mother, the Em- 
press Dowager." 

Prince Ching and his colleagues presented these 
various utterances from the Throne to the re- 
spective Powers, who assured the advisers of the 
Empress and Emperor of their personal safety. 
Then the viceroys and high officials of the Prov- 
inces united in a memorial urging the court to 
return to Peking. Before coming to a decision 
to return, however, the Empress required to be 
fully assured that the foreign Powers would not 
insist on her abdicating the supreme power as 
one of the conditions of peace. She would only 
return if guaranteed the full dignity and power 
of her former position. She was delighted to 
receive the good news that her treasure vaults in 
the capital had not been plundered by the for- 
eign troops. She decided to return as quickly 
as possible to superintend its removal before any 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 169 

stealing by the eunuchs should occur. On the 
20th of October, 1901, the long procession, com- 
posing the Imperial Court, started from the an- 
cient capital. The return to Peking by rail was 
in striking contrast to the hurried flight in carts 
which entailed squalor and privations. 

The Peace Protocol was signed. The great 
Li Hung Chang, who had, by his knowledge of 
foreign affairs and ability in negotiations, been 
of great service to the Empress, died before she 
arrived in Peking. The court travelled for the 
first time in its history by train. They had trav- 
elled in chairs and official carts to Cheng-ting-fu, 
and they enjoyed the luxuriously appointed draw- 
ing-room cars provided for their comfort. The 
Empress arrived at the station two hours before 
the train was due to start and personally super- 
vised the loading of the court's vast quantity of 
baggage and effects, and gave the engineer-in- 
chief no rest until he had loaded carefully and 
sent off four freight trains of her stuff. She 
presented $5,000 for distribution among the Eu- 
ropean and Chinese employees of the railroad 
line, and expressed great satisfaction with her 
first journey by rail. 

On the way the high Chinese officials who 
travelled in the first-class carriage between the 
Emperor's special car and that of the Empress, 
felt crowded and secured an extra car from the 
railway officials, but Her Majesty was not pleased 



170 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

and ordered it removed, so Yuan Shih K'ai and 
his fat colleagues had to squeeze back into their 
same old car again. 

Space forbids details of the court's return and 
the subsequent ruling of the Empress Dowager. 
The Emperor continued a prisoner in his palace 
and appeared to those who saw him as a drugged 
man, wearing a look of deep despair. The Em- 
press Dowager appointed Prince Ch'un as Re- 
gent and P'u Yi, his son, as Emperor of China. 
He is known as " His Majesty Hsuan Tung." 

Emperor Kwang Hsu, although very ill, was 
still conscious when Prince Ching told him of 
these appointments, and said : " Would it not 
have been better to appoint an adult ? No doubt, 
however, the Empress Dowager knows best." 
The infant King was brought into the palace two 
hours later and shown to the Emperor and Em- 
press Dowager. The next day Kwang Hsu 
wrote the following dying statement : " We were 
the second son of Prince Ch'un when the Em- 
press Dowager selected us for the Throne. She 
has always hated us, but for our misery of the 
past ten years, Yuan Shih K'ai is responsible 
(and one other). When the time comes I desire 
that Yuan be summarily beheaded." 

All readers of Chinese history are aware of 
the circumstances referred to in the dying King's 
statement. Influenced by the unprincipled offi- 
cial, K'ang Yu Wei, the Emperor was persuaded 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 171 

that the Empress Dowager was the chief ob- 
stacle to China's reform, her influence being 
really the prime factor in the country's corrup- 
tion and lethargy. " Why should she be per- 
mitted to waste millions of Government funds 
yearly in the keeping up of extravagance at the 
Summer Palace, etc." He advised the Emperor 
to surround her residence, seize her person, and 
confine her for the rest of her days on a certain 
small island in the Palace lake. Then he should 
issue a decree, telling of her misdeeds, and de- 
claring his intention of assuming supreme rule, 
without permitting her any part in the Govern- 
ment. The Emperor, led into this scheme of 
K'ang Yu Wei's, knew that to insure success he 
must dispose of Jung Lu, who had command of 
the troops in Chihli and who would never con- 
sent to helping the cause against the Empress 
Dowager. 

Then he sent for Yuan Shih K'ai, who dis- 
cussed reform matters with him, and the Em- 
peror was convinced of his loyal support. His 
Majesty, seated for the last time on the great 
lacquered Dragon Throne, and in the light of the 
early morning, taking every precaution that the 
conversation be not overheard, told Yuan Shih 
K'ai the details of the commission with which 
he had decided to entrust him. He was to go to 
Tientsin, put Jung Lu to death, and then return 
at once to Peking with the troops under his 



172 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

command to seize and imprison the Empress 
Dowager. 

Yuan went to Tientsin, and instead of killing 
Jung Lu, betrayed to him the whole plot and 
brought on the Emperor's misery. The Empress 
Dowager, informed by Jung Lu, wrested the 
reins of government from the Emperor and 
made him a prisoner. She advanced Yuan 
Shih K'ai from being Governor of Shantung to 
Viceroy of Chihli and from one high office to 
another until he became Grand Councillor to the 
Throne. 

The secrets of the Manchu Palaces will never 
be fully known, but the Emperor Kwang Hsu 
died a few hours after writing his last will as 
given above, and the Empress Dowager expired 
two days later, after ordering the proclamation 
of the new Emperor, and writing her own vale- 
dictory decree. 

The Prince Regent entirely failed to satisfy 
the Chinese people, and it is said commonly now 
of him, in their concise way of judging char- 
acter : 

" Great affair — great blunder. 
Small affair — small blunder. 
No affair — no blunder." 

No matter what he did, it was always wrong, 
they thought. 

The baby King was homesick, at first, and 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 173 

dressed in his little yellow silk robes of state, 
cried for his mother, and for " Mao ! Mao ! " 
Supposing he wanted a cat (one meaning of the 
word "mao"), the country was searched for a 
suitable cat to please the " Son of Heaven," but 
no, that was not what he wanted. At last a cer- 
tain playmate named " Mao " was brought, and 
then the King was all smiles, for oh, that was 
what he wanted ! The child Mao, being only of 
the common herd, however, it was necessary to 
give his father a title to elevate him to a rank 
worthy of being companion to the Imperial 
infant. 

However, the country became more and more 
unsettled, and even while Yuan Shih K'ai was 
high in power with the Manchus, the great dip- 
lomat was in secret communication with the Rev- 
olutionaries. The Prince Regent, loyal to the 
Emperor's request, had sent away Yuan Shih 
K'ai, not daring to behead him because of Yuan's 
great popularity; but when affairs grew so seri- 
ous, Yuan was urged to return to Peking, as he 
was the only man judged capable of controlling 
affairs; and under his masterly management, 
while the royal family was protected, the way 
was gradually opened for the establishment of 
the new " Chinese Republic," and by the wise 
consent of all concerned, he became the first 
President under the new regime. 

As a proof that the Chinese were preparing 



174, NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

long ago for this Revolution, Rev. McOwan, of 
the Anglican Mission, says he had an interview 
with Dr. Sun Yat Sen five years ago in Japan. 
Dr. Sun was there, as a price was upon his head 
in China (50,000 taels). He unfolded a map 
and showed the missionary all the plans then 
made for carrying on the Revolution, and said: 
" Five years from now there will be something 
doing in China. You will see ! " Sure enough, 
those very plans, with very few changes, were 
carried out in the Revolution. 

Dr. Sun Yat Sen (or "Sun Wen," as the 
Chinese like to call him) was born of humble 
parents in Canton. He spent part of his youth 
in Honolulu, but returned to Canton, and be- 
came a convert and worker in the London Mis- 
sionary Society, with Dr. and Mrs. Cantlie as his 
best friends. He had attended an Episcopal 
school in Honolulu, but completed his education 
in Hong Kong and Canton mission schools, and 
studied medicine under Dr. Cantlie and also un- 
der Dr. J. G. Kerr, of the Presbyterian Mission. 
He became a Christian and was baptized and 
received into the church by Dr. C. R. Hager. 
When he was discovered as identified with the 
Revolutionary movement, he fled, and was an 
exile with a price upon his head. He occupied 
his time influencing the Chinese people (whom 
he saw in the ports of Asia outside of China), 
exhorting them individually, and in crowded 




Dr. Sun Yat Sen 
Chinese Patriot 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 175 

houses, to be patriotic, and collected large sums 
of money from them, as well as obtaining loans 
from foreign capitalists to help the revolution- 
ary movement, and was in constant touch with 
the leaders in China by correspondence. 

During the writing of this story of the Revo- 
lution, it was my privilege to meet Mrs. Saund- 
ers, a beautiful white-haired English missionary, 
mother of the two young sister martyrs at Ku- 
cheng in 1895, Eleanor and Elizabeth, or, as 
she lovingly called them, " Nellie " and " Topsy." 
I told her I remembered very well about her sor- 
row, and also how she had disposed of her prop- 
erty and settled her affairs in Australia, and 
sailed for China, and how a Chinese teacher, 
struck with her beautiful Christian spirit, begged 
the privilege of teaching the Chinese language 
to this mother who had come to his country 
where her two daughters had been sacrificed, to 
teach the Chinese women as they had done. 

The missionary houses in the hills were sud- 
denly surrounded by a band of ruffians, and 
eleven foreign missionaries, including Mrs. 
Saunders' two daughters, were murdered. The 
little Stewart children were out gathering flow- 
ers in the woods to decorate the table for their 
baby brother's birthday, and so escaped, but 
" Baby Herbert " became a martyr and cele- 
brated his birthday in Heaven, where flowers 
never fade. Two years later, Mrs. Saunders 



176 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

sailed for China, and although far advanced in 
life, she obtained a sufficient knowledge of the 
language to take a part in the work among the 
Chinese women, and when a number of Manchu 
women, during the Revolution, fled to the foreign 
missionaries in terror of their lives, Mrs. Saund- 
ers, with others, gave them refuge. 

These Manchu women, who had always been 
accustomed to a life of ease and luxury, served 
by the Chinese peasant women, suddenly found 
themselves helpless; and, under the protection 
of the missionaries, have been obliged to work 
for their living. 

Mrs. Saunders said : " We will give you the 
rooms to live in, but we cannot give you money 
or food." 

Then she got them in the way of weaving 
cloth, which they can do most beautifully and 
are able to support themselves. When I arrived 
in Shanghai, Mrs. Saunders was also there for 
the purpose of procuring more looms and thread 
for these Manchu refugees. 

At the Missionary Home where we met, she 
told me the story of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. Said 
she: 

" Dr. Sun is the purest patriot in history. He 
put aside all personal ambition and self-interests 
for the good of his country." 

She told me how Sun Wen lived in London 
with Dr. Cantlie, and one Sabbath morning he 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 177 

started for church a little early, with his prayer- 
book in his hand, when he wandered into a street 
near the Chinese Legation. Two of his country- 
men met him and began a friendly conversation 
and invited him to take a rest in their quarters 
as it was still early for service, and he willingly 
accepted. These men were spies, and thus in- 
veigled Sun into the Chinese Legation, where 
they immediately closed and barred the door, and 
told Sun that he was under arrest and that he 
would be secretly taken out of London and 
back to China. He was confined in an upper 
room until arrangements could be made for the 
official kidnapping. Looking out the high win- 
dow, he could see below and he tried to get 
word to his friends by dropping down messages, 
weighted with coins, but his little notes were 
captured and destroyed, and his window nailed 
up. He tried to persuade the old man who car- 
ried up coals to take a note from him to Dr. 
Cantlie, but was always refused. 

Then he prayed and received deliverance. On 
Friday, October 16th, his despair was complete, 
and he said : " Only by prayer to God could I 
gain any comfort, but I shall never forget the 
feeling of calmness, hopefulness and confidence 
that assured me my prayer was heard, and it 
filled me with hope that all would yet be well. ,, 

Rising from his knees, the old man entered 
the room, and said he would take his note to Dr. 



178 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

Cantlie, which he concealed in the dust of the 
coal scuttle. Although late at night, Dr. Cantlie 
very soon roused Lord Salisbury with the start- 
ling news that Sun was a prisoner in the Chi- 
nese Legation and in danger of being deported to 
China to be decapitated. The Chinese Legation 
were at once accused of breaking English law 
and ordered to deliver up the prisoner Sun, which 
they did through the back door to save their 
" face/' 

When the Revolution broke out, Dr. Sun 
promptly returned to China, and was at once 
chosen their civil leader. He accepted the Presi- 
dency of the new Republic December 29th, 191 1, 
but declared that he considered himself merely 
a Provisional President. When the Manchus ab- 
dicated, February 12th, and he was assured of 
the loyalty of Yuan Shih K'ai to the Republic, 
Sun resigned. It was a memorable meeting of 
the National Assembly at Nanking when his 
resignation was accepted and Yuan Shih K'ai 
elected as President of the United Republic, Feb- 
ruary 15th, 1912. The new president was for- 
mally inaugurated on March 10th with impres- 
sive ceremonies. His oath of office read as fol- 
lows : 

" Since the Republic has been established, 
many works have now to be performed. I shall 
endeavor faithfully to develop the Republic, to 
sweep away the disadvantages attached to abso- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 179 

lute monarchy, to observe the laws of the Con- 
stitution, to increase the welfare of the country, 
to cement together a strong nation which shall 
embrace all five races. When the National As- 
sembly elects a permanent President, I shall re- 
tire. This I swear before the Chinese Republic. ,, 

Mr. E. J. Dingle, in his " China's Revolution," 
says : " Yuan's striking personality, his military 
genius, his character, the magnetic attraction he 
has for the foreigners around him, must have 
had much to do in shaping events. But how 
great a part he has played in the Revolution yet 
remains to be revealed concerning the greatest 
man perhaps in the Chinese Empire of to-day." 
Then hints that Admiral Sah in retiring down- 
river with his fleet, instead of annihilating the 
routed Republicans at Kilometre Ten, and other 
movements, were due to Yuan's orders. 

" This Revolution has brought into being a 
new China, and no one who watches China to- 
day can fail to see in all parts of the Empire 
that are known to civilization much which forms 
a good augury in the Revolution, the genuine- 
ness of a common impulse, an impulse linked with 
a dogged persistence of effort to get out of the 
shallows of the past into the depths of the future, 
— a glimpse beyond the garden and cloister of 
Chinese antiquity into the wonderful golden age, 
if the Revolutionary party is blessed." 

He also refers to Tuan Fang, the Tartar Gen- 



180 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

eral, who as Governor of Shensi in July, 1900, 
issued proclamations to the province, in which 
he earnestly warned the people to abstain from 
acts of violence. These documents were un- 
doubtedly the means of saving the lives of many 
missionaries and other foreigners isolated in the 
interior. One proclamation says: 

" I have never for a moment doubted that you 
men of Shensi are brave and patriotic and that 
you would fight nobly for your country. I would 
have you observe, however, that our enemies are 
foreign troops who have invaded the metropoli- 
tan province, and not the foreign missionaries 
who reside in the interior. If the Throne orders 
you to take up arms in the defence of your coun- 
try, then I, as Governor of this province, will 
surely share in that glory. But if on your own 
account you set forth to slay a handful of harm- 
less and defenceless missionaries, you will un- 
doubtedly be actuated by the desire for plunder, 
there will be nothing noble in your deed, and 
your neighbours will despise you as surely as the 
law will punish you." 

Tuan Fang, the foreigners' friend, was de- 
capitated during the Revolution, it is said, by his 
own men in Sze-Chuen. 

" With the putting down of the Boxer 
movement and the generous treatment meted 
out to China by the foreign Powers came 
the consciousness of her real needs. From 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 181 

this time China put her youth to school with the 
' foreigner.' Students went abroad by thou- 
sands, and from the contact with the outside 
world and a comparative study of empires came 
the awakened and trained mind. It is justly 
charged that schools and colleges have created 
in the Chinese mind a desire to do away with 
make-believe and insincerity. Well-wishers of 
China will welcome every honest attempt to help 
the student-life, and lead them to follow out in 
life the policy dictated to them by the manifold 
call of duty of their enlightened conscience. 
China will welcome the efforts of the Occident 
to lead her into the ways of higher education. 
Statesmen-missionaries have always advocated 
education as the surest means of reaching the 
heart of the nation; for the other classes look to 
the student class for guidance, and if one can 
win the heart of the student, the ear of the people 
is gained also. China needs her great force of 
students, needs men of initiative, men who can 
lead, men who have gained from education a 
broader outlook." To supply this need we have 
our Shantung Christian University at Wei Hsein 
and many other Christian colleges and schools 
all over China. 



182 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

HISTORICAL VERSES REVOLUTIONARY 

By Burgoyne in Pittsburg Chronicle 

" Now what do you think 
Of the wide-awake Chink, 
Who is putting the Sovereign 
Power on the blink? 

From his very long nap 
This remarkable chap 
Woke up lately and girded 
His loins for a scrap. 

So he cut off his queue 
And with no more ado 
He proceeded to hammer 
The ruling Manchu. 

For the Manchu, you see, 
Though on top of the tree 
Is by no means a 
Really and truly Chinee. 

And for many a day 

His tyrannical sway 

Has oppressed the true Chinks 

In a ruinous way. 

And till now we've not heard 
That it ever occurred 
To the victims to kick 
Which was very absurd. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 183 

Hence to see them get wise 
And like Trojans arise 
And strike hard for their rights 
Is a pleasant surprise. 



And more wonderful yet 
Is their purpose to get 
A republic like ours 
When the throne they upset. 



And they'll do it, no doubt, 
Since their warriors stout 
Rarely fail to put royalty's 
Forces to rout. 

Scarce a day passes by 
But they made the fur fly 
In some town with a name 
Like a canine Ki-yi. 

Hence the Manchus hard hit 
Took a penitent fit 
And they offer on any 
Old terms to submit. 

But in vain is their plea 
Since the Heathen Chinee 
Has his eyes open now 
And knows how to be free. 

And the climax to cap 
We shall soon see, mayhap, 
The Republic of China 
Appear on the map. 



184 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

A SOLILOQUY BY THE BABY EMPEROR 

(Apropos of Washington's Birthday, Feb. 22, 1912) 

Tune: "When the Flag is full of Stars." 

— VanDyke. 

" 'Tis fine to rule a monarchy, and do 
Just as you please, 
No matter if you stretch a point, 
To get your annual squeeze. 

So China with us Manchus, 
Used to have a humble share, 
But now they think they've had 
Enough of our paternal care. 

Refrain : 

So it's back again, Oh ! back again 

To Ewo Park for me. 

I'll only need four million taels 

To buy my toys and tea. 

You may talk about George Washington 

And his land beneath the stars, 

But I'd rather be in China, 

Though the flag is full of bars. 

Then soon the bombs and shells began 

To fly as thick as hail; 

My yellow dragon got so scared 

He couldn't wag his tail. 

I wrote a solemn edict out 

And prayed for pardon kind, 

But though I wept and said ' Be good/ 

They simply would not mind. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 185 

A ' Father of his country ' 

You may choose for Uncle Sam, 

But don't forget my title, for 

A * Wan Sui Yen' I am (Ancient Father). 

My people want a substitute, 

Their claims I'll not deny, 

But give them now a President 

Like staunch Yuan Shih K'ai. 

So now I'll have a holiday, 

With nothing else to pan (manage), 

But romp about from noon till night 

And grow to be a man. 

But I don't want a hatchet sharp 

To hack a cherry tree, 

To burn incense for ancient Kings 

Is fun enough for me. 

Refrain for last verse. 

So, I'm back again, 

Oh, back again 

In Ewo Park to play, 

My summer Palace all fixed up 

Will last for many a day. 

You may talk about George Washington 

And his land beneath the stars, 

But I'm glad to be in China, 

Where the flag is full of bars." 



CHAPTER XXI 



HOW THE REVOLUTION AFFECTED MISSIONS 
IN SHANTUNG 



THE American Minister at Peking sent 
through the various consuls a circular to 
Americans living in the interior, stating 
that " while both parties in the Revolution are 
friendly to foreigners, the troubles may lead to 
the stirring up of the lawless elements who 
could not be controlled." He therefore urged 
all Americans to go to the coast, especially 
women and children. 

We, at Wei Hsien, felt, however, that as we 
are situated near the German railroad, and every- 
thing was peaceful apparently in Shantung, and 
that it would make the Chinese who are friendly 
unnecessarily suspicious of foreigners if we 
should all leave ; it would expose a valuable mis- 
sion plant to looting and probably destruction, 
and stir up a lawless element to make trouble 
where none existed. We had about 450 students 
on the place whose homes are widely scattered in 
the country round about, and we could easily 
get warning of any trouble brewing against us. 
So all our school work went on as usual, except 
186 



o 




NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 187 

in the Girls' School, where it was thought best 
not to have a spring term, but let the girls remain 
in their village homes. So there was no gradu- 
ating class in 1912, which caused a shortage in 
supply of teachers for our Wei Hsien country 
girls' schools, as well as for the schools in other 
places in Shantung and other provinces. But 
the Wei Hsien girls' school was opened as usual 
in the fall, and all the country girls' and boys' 
schools flourishing. The people show a growing 
interest in their girls, spending more for their 
education, and even the heathen are opening 
schools for girls, one being established in An 
K'u City for the education of girls in that 
country. 

Despite the unsettled times, the Boys' Acad- 
emy was kept open, and twenty-one boys grad- 
uated, passed the Shantung College entrance ex- 
aminations, and entered the Arts College at the 
New Year. President Paul D. Bergen says that 
at the outbreak of the Revolution the work 
of the college was somewhat disturbed, but 
continued without interruption. Many of the 
students became uneasy when rumours became 
alarming, feeling, as they said, that it was not 
right for them to sit quietly at their books when 
their comrades were dying in the cause of free- 
dom; accordingly, all who wished to do so were 
given permission to return home. Nearly a hun- 
dred took advantage of this, and not a few of 



188 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

them enlisted as soldiers in the Revolutionary 
army or devoted their energies to some other 
work in connection with the cause of their 
country. 

It was touching to watch the patriotic tide ris- 
ing in these young hearts, even though it some- 
times found an excessive expression, and in one 
or two instances led to regrettable collisions. 
The graduating class numbered thirty-two, the 
largest in the history of the college. As in for- 
mer years, all were Christians, and are now en- 
gaged in Christian work. Six are devoting them- 
selves to the work of the ministry and are now 
studying in the Union Theological Seminary at 
Ch'ing Chowfu, under charge of our Presby- 
terian ministers; Rev. W. M. Hayes, D.D., and 
Rev. Wm. P. Chalfant, D.D., with Revs. Bruce, 
Burt, Nichols and Fisk representing the English 
Baptist part of the Union work. 

The Shantung Christian University embraces 
the Arts College at Wei Hsien, the Union Theo- 
logical Seminary at Ch'ing Chowfu, and the 
Union Medical College at Chinaufu. The gradu- 
ates from these three institutions are to be found 
doing splendid work and are in great demand 
all over China in every province. 

When the Revolution broke out, as Rev. Timo- 
thy Richard of the Shanghai Christian Literary 
Society expressed it : " To upset a Government 
that had lasted 250 years, it was necessary to 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 189 

strike terror somewhere. This the Revolution- 
ists did by asking the officials to submit to the 
Revolution or be bombed. This avoided the 
wholesale cruelty of general looting, burning, 
and massacres so common in great wars and 
revolutions. This Revolution was a marvelously 
bloodless one. 

" No foreigners were touched by Revolution- 
aries. No Chinese who submitted were molested. 
Even the Manchus, whose Government was up- 
set, were well treated in most cases." 

The Revolutionaries sent a deputation to 
Tsinanfu, who suddenly entered the presence of 
His Excellency Governor Sun Pao Ch'i, and in- 
formed him that if he would become a Revolu- 
tionary and be " president of Shantung," he 
would be spared, but if he refused to leave the 
Imperialists and become a Republican, he would 
be a dead man before the next morning. With- 
out further details of facts, Governor Sun de- 
cided to keep his head on his shoulders, declared 
his intention of being a Republican, and at their 
meeting on November 13 consented to become 
" President of the independent State of Shan- 
tung." 

He had to submit to the indignity of an ad- 
visory council, who seized the Treasury and di- 
verted the taxes from the Manchu Government 
to the use of their own province in the support 
of its new dignity. However, this mad action 



190 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

speedily subsided, and Governor Sun, after a de- 
cent interval, made his peace with the authori- 
ties at Peking, was allowed to retain office, with 
exhortation to do better in future. He, how- 
ever, felt he had " lost face," and soon after 
retired from office. 

For a time he was a guest at our Union Medi- 
cal College in Tsinanfu. A telegram had been 
received December 4th, stating that 2,000 Revo- 
lutionary soldiers had seized the rolling stock of 
the Tientsin-Pukow Railroad at Han-Chwang on 
the border of Kiangnan and Shantung, and were 
on their way to Tsinanfu. Governor Sun sent a 
letter to Dr. J. B. Neal, of the Presbyterian Mis- 
sion, asking if he would prepare a room in the 
hospital for him, as he wanted to come in for 
treatment. A second letter, December 5th, stated 
that he had been hindered by public business, but 
on December 6th the Governor arrived and be- 
came a guest at the hospital. He remarked on 
arrival that it was " very amusing to look at a 
play, but not so amusing to be one of the actors." 
Of course, the Rebels hated Governor Sun for 
playing them false and learning all their secrets 
while professing to be one of them. On the 
other hand, after he had telegraphed the Throne 
at Peking that he had only turned Rebel because 
he was forced to and to save the province from 
anarchy, and now that the province was safely 
steered back under Imperial rule, he wished to be 





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NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 191 

punished and deprived of office, the Throne, in- 
stead praised him for his diplomacy and retained 
him in office. Rev. J. S. Whitewright, of Tsin- 
anfu, wrote, December 6th, to Wei Hsien as fol- 
lows: "The confirmation of the news of the 
fall of Nanking has caused a good deal of un- 
easiness among the acting officials. But in spite 
of bad roads, and the fact that the colleges have 
been dismissed, we still have visitors at the mu- 
seum. Yesterday there were over 500. The 
reading-room is especially well used at this time. 
Owing to prompt and careful measures taken by 
the authorities in Tsinanfu, the provincial capi- 
tal and other important cities were free from 
any serious disturbance, although robbers and 
violence have been very common in many parts 
of the province." 

The past year records a variety of experiences 
in my itinerating and Bible class work in the 
country around Wei Hsien, owing to the dis- 
turbed conditions in China. I had to plan to 
work in places where it was possible to hold Bible 
classes in peace. Also the rains were so heavy 
that the roads were in a terrible condition, and 
a number of our chapels in the out-stations were 
damaged and roofs fallen in. Also, the Chris- 
tians suffered considerably from their little 
homes tumbling in. But they showed great pa- 
tience and have done very little begging for help. 
At one place I saw a house so badly damaged 



192 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

that I asked an old woman outside whose it was. 
She replied quietly : " It is ours." 

She did not beg, but took me into see the 
wreck when asked to do so. It was pitiful to 
see their poor little dirty pillow on the ground 
under the piece of roof left at the end, — barely 
room for the old couple to lie down, and yet 
they had spent the winter in this cold, wretched, 
exposed place. 

In December I started for a village far out 
from Wei Hsien, where I had arranged to teach 
a Bible class. I planned to stop at Ch'ang Loa 
City on the way, stay over Sabbath there, and 
finish the journey on Monday. But on Sabbath 
afternoon, at the close of our services, while the 
Christians were quietly walking with me to my 
stopping place for the night, a scoundrel reviled 
us on the street, and it became very much stirred 
up. The elder of the church there was arrested 
and taken by ten soldiers to the yamen. The 
people that collected soon after went away for 
their evening meal, and I left in the dusk on the 
evening train for Wei Hsien. 

Next morning Dr. Frank Chalfant took the 
early train for Ch'ang Loa City, and with his 
evangelist visited the officials, and with difficulty 
secured the release of the unfortunate elder. I 
then went to my class in the village, where I had 
arranged to hold my Bible class, and received a 
cordial welcome- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 193 

Away across the fields the children saw my 
barrow approaching, and shouting joyfully, 
" Miss Hawes has come ! " they came tearing to 
meet me and covered my hands with their little 
hands, and out from the little homes came their 
big sisters and mothers, and all went with me to 
the chapel, where we had a very happy time to- 
gether, and for two weeks a very earnest class, 
the time spent in profitable study of the Bible, 
and at the close, twelve Christians went out to 
preach in heathen villages, all having voluntarily 
promised the time at our closing meeting. 

In February I went to another remote village 
through a landscape of very soft real estate, the 
barrow finally sinking gently in the mud, while 
the ancient animal refused to pull another step. 
We succeeded in hiring a splendid big horse at 
a nearby village, which pulled us with a mighty 
jerk out of the mud, and took us over the remain- 
ing ten li to our destination at nightfall. The 
Christians welcomed us and came daily to study. 
One of the women was so anxious to keep on 
studying and teach the other women in her vil- 
lage, thirteen li distant, that she sent for her 
husband, who came with his big cart, drawn by 
four mules and a horse, to take us all to their 
village. The roads were so bad, the five strong 
animals fairly wallowed in the mud, so that 
twice we had to get off the cart to lighten the 
load. But we were well repaid for this trip, for 



194 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

the large room borrowed for our class was 
crowded daily with earnest women studying the 
gospel. 

Returning from this place by barrow to the 
train, a day's journey off, I was surprised to find 
the cars filled with foreigners and Chinese flee- 
ing to the coast for safety; and as we emerged 
from the Wei Hsien station we had to pass 
through a double line of soldiers, who knocked 
the sacks of bedding off the shoulders of my 
teachers, and searched the contents for contra- 
band gunpowder. It was funny to see the an- 
noyed looks of my helpers as their baggage was 
thus rudely knocked down. However, as I ap- 
peared and said to the soldiers, " These are my 
things," they politely lifted the sacks of bedding 
up on the men's shoulders again and allowed us 
to go to the carts in peace. They said they had 
arrested thirty men that day who had concealed 
gunpowder in their sacks of bedding. We have 
sorrowed because of the Christians having to 
endure trials because of the lawless element con- 
nected with the war, but rejoice at the wonder- 
ful work of grace in their hearts which has kept 
them faithful and true to God. The work is 
very encouraging everywhere in spite of the still 
unsettled state of the country. 

Elder Chang, helping in one of the Yihsien 
out-stations, says that in one place there was a 
theater going on, and for two days the people 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 195 

left the theater to listen to the preaching of the 
gospel. He did not hear any reviling or disre- 
spectful talk. A wealthy, educated man read a 
copy of the gospels which one of his fellow vil- 
lagers brought home to him from the market 
where Elder Chang preached and sold books. 

He read it with great interest, and the one 
sentence, " Love one another," stuck in his mind. 
He said : " There is nothing like that in our 
classics." 

He went to find the elder who had sold the 
book and bought more books, and listened all 
morning to the preaching. At noon he fol- 
lowed the elder and his evangelist to the inn to 
hear more. They saw he was in earnest and 
spent their noon resting time in preaching and 
explaining the Scriptures to him. He was very 
much impressed by this, and said to the tired 
men : " This is love put into practice." He be- 
came a Christian, and about ten others of his 
village have become Christians, while about ten 
more are studying the gospel. He has a church 
and a Christian school in his house. 

CHANGES IN OLD CUSTOMS 

On January ist, 1912, the Chinese officially 
changed their New Year from February 18th 
to January ist, from the lunar to the solar year, 
to conform to the Christian way of reckoning. 



196 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

The people celebrated the New Year on the date 
of February 18th on this year for the last time. 
The queue has been worn in China since 1644. 
Today they have no queues in the coast cities, 
and they are dropping off in the interior grad- 
ually. The young men in the Shantung Col- 
lege have all disposed of their queues, and at 
first their hair looked somewhat like feather- 
dusters in style, but they have now learned how 
to cut their hair, so they present a very neat ap- 
pearance. This is due largely to our professor, 
Ralph C. Wells, Superintendent of the Boys' 
Academy, who cut Dr. Mateer's hair in the pres- 
ence of a gathering of students in the school 
yard as an object lesson. The older men, espe- 
cially the heathen class in the interior villages, 
where superstition and ignorance still rule, are 
not willing to part with their queue. They don't 
want to die without their queue and risk having 
trouble in the spirit world. At one place, sixty li 
from Wei Hsien, some young Republicans began 
cutting off the villagers' queues without their 
consent, and unwisely dealt with an official who 
resented losing his queue, and during the fight 
which ensued, twenty-eight Republicans were 
killed. Then the city official came out from Wei 
Hsien disguised as a farmer and settled the 
trouble in a Chinese way. By offering four 
strings of cash to every man who had done the 
killing and two strings of cash to any who had 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 197 

helped, he lured them all into a hall to get their 
rewards, and then closing the door, had them all 
shot down. It is estimated that sixty- four men 
lost their lives over queue cutting, counting both 
sides. In this, of course, no Christians were 
concerned. 

The government officials used to have high- 
sounding names and titles. Today they are 
simply " Mister/' Twenty years ago mission- 
aries scarcely dared go near the heathen temples. 
Now they can go and take kodak pictures of 
them and the idols inside. In some of the 
temples idols were worshipped for centuries, 
some even from before the Christian era. Now 
many have been raided, the idols broken and 
cast out, and nothing said by the onlookers. 

There is a society called the " T'ung Ming 
Hui," of which Sun Yat Sen is a member, and 
also all leading Republicans all over China. It 
means " Enlightenment Society," and its object 
is to educate the Chinese to a thorough under- 
standing of what a Republican government 
means. It encourages reform and education in 
every form, and discourages all ignorance and 
superstition. It meets every day and the meet- 
ings are attended by hundreds of men, most of 
them of the influential class. At Wei Hsien 
City, our Shantung College professors have lec- 
tured very frequently at these meetings, having 
urgent invitations to do so, and they are always 



198 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

told that they may present the cause of Christian- 
ity at the close of their lectures. This is one of 
the great open doors for Christianity. 

Then it is glorious to see the beautiful work 
of the Y. M. C. A. and the Student Volunteer 
movement growing so fast. Pastor Ting Li Mei, 
a graduate of our Christian College, and one 
who, during the Boxer war suffered for Christ 
in China, and has done such noble work as an 
evangelist, is the first travelling secretary of the 
Volunteer Movement. He has visited most of 
the Christian colleges of China. Christian stu- 
dents in large numbers have been influenced by 
him under God to volunteer for the ministry, 
while many others are led into the Christian 
life. 

Mr. Fei Chi Pao, of the Y. M. C. A. at 
Peking, visited Wei Hsien recently to assist in a 
Y. M. C. A. convention in our compound, and 
in an interview the author learned his interest- 
ing story. Mr. Fei and his classmate, Mr. Kung, 
graduates of the Tungchow Congregational Col- 
lege, went to America in 1901. Owing to their 
passports having been signed by Li Hung Chang, 
instead of the Viceroy (as required by law), 
they were kept at the San Francisco detention 
station with about 200 Chinese, and then later 
on in another place until their passports could 
be fixed up right, so that these " Two Heroes of 
Cathay " were six months in getting to Oberlin 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 199 

University, where they took the course and then 
afterwards graduated at Yale. They returned 
to China and are engaged in Christian work. 
Mr. Fei was principal of the provincial college 
in Paotingfu for three years and was one of Dr. 
Sun's cabinet, but is now connected with the 
Y. M. C. A. work in Peking, which is supported 
by the Princeton University, and directed by 
Princeton graduates, Mr. Robert Gailey, Mr. 
Dwight Edwards, Mr. Munson and others. Mr. 
Fei said that he was so long getting to Oberlin 
from San Francisco that when he arrived, and 
was told he should enter the Sophomore class, 
his heart sank within him and he wrote to a 
friend : 

" I had such a hard time getting here, and 
now I am to enter the ' Suffer more ' class. I 
don't know what is in store for me, but I hope 
it will be all right." 

One of his classmates was a Greek named 
" Papodopylus," and Mr. Fei got his name 
wrong and called him " Mr. Hippopotamus." 

On April 25th, 1912, the foundation stone of 
the new building of the Young Men's Christian 
Association in Peking was laid. Mr. John Wana- 
maker, of Philadelphia, gave the money for the 
building. $40,000 covered the cost of building, 
and the equipment with electric light, heating, 
etc., cost about $30,000 more. The wealthy 
Chinese are giving large sums of money to sup- 



200 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

port the Y. M. C. A. work. They realize the 
great value of this uplifting influence. Chinese 
boys of 12 to 1 6 years of age and upwards may 
go and enjoy the educational classes, the reading- 
rooms, the swimming-pools and shower baths, 
the game rooms, the gymnasium, the lectures and 
services in the spacious Auditorium, and on sum- 
mer evenings the Roof Garden. 

In Tientsin, where the International Y. M. 
C. A. erected the building and provided foreign 
teachers, the native Chinese contribute $20,000 
a year for the work. Mr. O Yang Tai, a Chin- 
ese official, two years ago gave $20,000 from 
his own private purse towards the purchase of 
the land, valued at $40,000. 

When asked about the present situation of the 
new Republic of China, Mr. Fei said : " I think 
China is having a very critical time. The people 
are afraid to give because they have not full con- 
fidence in the Republic. There are many rich 
men who could give, but they fear the Republic 
will not stand. Some would like a constitu- 
tional monarchy. Not Manchu, oh! no, never," 
said Mr. Fei. " They would have it pure Chi- 
nese. They like Yuan Shih K'ai because he is 
Chinese. They think Dr. Sun has been away so 
much that he is more like a foreigner, but Dr. 
Sun shows a fine Christian spirit, and many 
would like him for President." When asked 
what he thought of Dr. Sun going to the Ming 






NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 201 

tomb and announcing to the dead Emperor: 
"China is a Republic!" he said: "Well, there 
are two sides to that. He wanted to show his 
respect to the Ming Emperor because he was a 
pure Chinese ruler/ not a Manchu. The dirt cov- 
ering his tomb was carried from the eighteen 
different provinces and he reverenced the Ming 
Emperor as the Chinese people all do." 

We trust the Christian people in America and 
other Christian countries will earnestly pray for 
Dr. Sun and President Yuan Shih K'ai, who are 
not perfect men by any means, but we should 
pray that they may utterly renounce the sins of 
idolatry, and honor God, the King of Kings, be- 
fore this great nation, and that they may be able 
to stand the gaze and criticism of the world as 
they try to rule this great new Republic and en- 
deavor to steer it through the sea of troubles 
to a peaceful, happy, solid existence. Above all, 
let us pray that the Chinese people may turn 
from the gods that have no power to save their 
precious souls, and believe in the one true and 
living God while He yet shows them mercy. It 
seems to me that God is holding China in the 
balance, waiting for her decision to the moment- 
ous question : " Choose ye this day whom ye 
will serve ! " Oh ! that this great country, up- 
held by the prayers and help of God's people, 
may put away the strange gods and say : " We 
will serve the Lord ! " 



CHAPTER XXII 



THE CHINESE REVOLUTION— THE MOST WON- 
DERFUL IN HISTORY 



THOSE who read this book are already- 
aware of the principal leading events in 
the recent Revolution. It is not neces- 
sary in these days of progress to go over events 
which have been published and read daily in the 
home papers. But it is interesting and of the 
highest importance to watch these events and 
the outcome in China as they bear relation to the 
one important matter — the triumph of God's 
church, His truth over all this struggle. There 
are two classes now in China — optimists and 
pessimists, both among foreigners and Chinese — 
and I find many opinions expressed about the 
Republic as to its success. There are those who 
think the Republic is bound to win, and others 
who even go so far as to suspect poor Yuan 
Shik K'ai of the intention of declaring himself 
Emperor, like Napoleon. 

But let me state the opinion of Dr. George 

Fitch, of Shanghai, who has been the honored 

representative of our Presbyterian Church in 

China for lo, these many years, since 1870. 

202 




Yuan Shih K'ai 
President of the Chinese Republic 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 203 

While he says no one can tell to a certainty yet 
whether the Republic will endure, yet he hopes 
it will and he thinks President Yuan Shih K'ai 
has no such base intentions as of declaring him- 
self Emperor ; that he is exerting his best strength 
and energies for the sole good of China, and 
that he is not personally enjoying the position 
he occupies of being constantly surrounded in 
Peking by a heavy guard of soldiers as close as 
any prisoner while he performs the duties of his 
high office. 

To show the reader a little of how the great 
President lives in Peking and the nervous state 
of things in that city last May, I venture to tell 
a little personal experience. Mrs. Robert Ma- 
teer and myself took a trip to Tientsin to have 
our teeth filled by an American dentist, and we 
saw block after block of burned buildings, the 
sad evidences of the late struggle for freedom. 
Then we decided to visit the great capital, and 
Mr. Grimes, our Bible Society representative, at 
whose house we were stopping in Tientsin, ar- 
ranged for us to stay with the kind missionaries 
of the London Mission at Peking, who were will- 
ing to accommodate us for a few days in their 
home. 

When we arrived and passed through the great 
Water Gate through which the famous " Allied " 
troops had rushed in Boxer days, we enjoyed 
our ride in the rubber-tired rikshas to the pleas- 



204 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

ant and comfortable home of Rev. and Mrs. 
Howard Smith, of the London Mission. We 
found, to our surprise, that this house was just 
over the wall from the great Yuan Shih K'ai 
himself, for looking out of the upstairs' window, 
we could see the magnificent building of the Wai 
Wu Pu (Foreign Office), formerly known as 
the " Tsung li Yamen." At night it looked bril- 
liant with electric lights all over the mansion 
and the grounds, the soldiers' barracks occupy- 
ing the rear, just next the wall dividing them 
from the Smith yard in the London Mission. 
It poured rain all the next day and night after 
we arrived, but we managed to visit the wonder- 
ful Temple of Heaven, passing through the beau- 
tiful wooded grounds and eleven different gates 
in the sacred enclosure. We followed the old 
Chinese guide (and also the advice of Mr. 
Grimes, of Tientsin, who said to " pay your 
gate fees coming back"), and we certainly had 
a very wet walk of it, which we didn't enjoy 
perhaps as much as the drove of water buffaloes 
did that we saw in the grounds, belonging to the 
late Emperor and intended for sacred sacrifices. 
We rested a little in one of the grand Im- 
perial pavilions and sat in the exquisitely carved 
Imperial chair, where the late Emperor sat to 
drink his tea and keep his vigils. At every gate 
the keeper protested about unlocking the bolts 
to let us through, but assuring him we would 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 205 

pay as we came out, he let us queer foreigners 
through, thinking, no doubt, that we would cer- 
tainly fix it up well for him on returning. We 
had changed a dollar Mexican (50c gold) into 
copper cash, and on our way back gave each of 
the gate keepers two or three of those after they 
opened the gate for us to pass through. Of 
course, it didn't satisfy them, but you couldn't 
satisfy them anyway with more, so we had no 
trouble and got off very cheap, our dollar Mexi- 
can being sufficient for all the sights in the 
Temple of Heaven, and also the Buddhist Llama 
Temple, where the filthy priests beset you on 
every side, clamoring for money. 

If anybody in America should become enam- 
ored of the Buddhist religion, just let them go 
to that Llama Temple in Peking and see those 
dirty, filthy, beggarly priests and that old bat- 
tered can they call a " prayer wheel," and the 
hideous idols and gloomy temples that make 
you shudder to go into, and see those five hun- 
dred little Mongolians and Tibetan boys, in 
training for priests, who chant, and as they pass 
from one temple to another, stick out their 
tongues and revile the foreigners. Oh! the evil 
in those young eyes. It is the saddest of sights 
to see them so young and in the chains of Satan's 
slavery. One of the priests wanted us to let him 
burn incense for us before that gigantic Buddha, 
made of one piece of wood (they say) several 



206 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

stories high. We told them, " No, we worship 
the true God," and when they kept urging us to 
buy little Buddhas which they pulled out of their 
filthy robes, we told them we " had no use for 
them," but we were very thankful when we got 
out of that place, I tell you. (We learned after- 
wards that an American had been locked up in 
one of those awful temples until he had given 
fifty dollars to the priests, and that it was not 
safe to go there alone.) 

It is a truly splendid sight to view the great 
Temple of Heaven, — both the grand, open, cir- 
cular-paved platform surrounded by steps where 
the Emperor yearly knelt to worship heaven, and 
offer sacrifices on the altar just below the steps 
in the grounds; and then see those splendid pil- 
lars in the temple with its enormous dome of 
blue, the pillars being of the costly teakwood 
brought floating by the sea from Siam and trans- 
ported at the cost of untold money and lives; 
and there you see shameful desecration, for 
names of foreigners are scratched on the surface 
of those magnificent pillars! It makes me blush 
for our country, and feel charity for the hatred 
of the foreigner in Chinese hearts. When we 
returned we visited the Congregational mission 
and were refreshed with a cup of beef tea pre- 
pared for us by Miss May Corbett, who is teach- 
ing in the Girls' School, and was very glad to 
welcome us. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 207 

That night we were sleeping very soundly 
after our rainy trip, and our shoes, etc., drying 
by the range in the kitchen, when we were sud- 
denly roused from our slumbers at midnight. 
Mrs. Smith appeared in our doorway with light- 
ed candle and anxious face, saying: 

" Don't you hear the trouble ? We must all 
go at once to Dr. Hill's house at the gate of the 
compound, and wait for a guard to take us to 
the British Legation ! " 

" My gracious ! " I exclaimed, " is there really 
trouble?" 

" Yes," she said ; " don't you hear the soldiers 
yelling?" 

Sure enough, we did hear the soldiers yelling, 
and soon they were firing shots. Mrs. Smith 
said: 

" There is the shooting ! Get dressed, chop- 
chop (quickly), Joyce," to her little girl in the 
next room. 

Dear me, how we did scramble to get dressed, 
and I called to Mr. Smith: "If you go to the 
kitchen to get your shoes, would you mind bring- 
ing up ours, too?" But, oh, no, there was no 
thought of shoes, and the Smith family swiftly 
passed down the stairs in their slippers, carrying 
the children (who were so good and didn't cry 
out) into the darkness and floods of rain. 

" Now, we are in another scrape ! Whatever 
possessed us to come here, anyhow?" weie my 



208 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

remarks to Mrs. Mateer as we got our belongings 
together, and I grabbed my precious kodak and 
blundered through the dark after the rest into 
deep pools of water, soaking my feet; but we 
finally reached the residence by the gate, and 
Mr. Smith with Dr. Woodson, armed with a 
gun, went to the Wai Wu Pu to inquire what 
was the real trouble. 

After they left, one of the English mission- 
aries said : "If Yuan Shih K'ai dies to-night, 
China is lost." But soon the gentlemen returned, 
saying that the rain had soaked through the roof 
and flimsy walls of the barracks and tumbled in 
on the sleeping soldiers, and that was the crash 
which had wakened the Smith family, whose 
room faced that direction. So learning that all 
but two of the soldiers were pulled out unhurt, 
and those two not seriously injured, and there 
being no real trouble, we all returned and fin- 
ished out our dreams in peace. Next morning 
the sun shone out innocently and we were able 
to go to visit the Great Wall, and " Bing 
toombs," as our colds caused us to pronounce 
the " Ming Tombs." 

The Peking missionaries at that time were all 
in the nervous state of not knowing what might 
happen in the next twenty- four hours and showed 
the strain of living in that uncertainty. Sand 
bags were lying about which had been used a 
few weeks before and might be called into use 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 209 

again. I quote a letter written by Miss Cor- 
bett, which is interesting not only to her own 
father (Dr. Hunter Corbett, of Chefoo), but 
to all who have read of China's recent events. 

" Peking, March 5th, 1912. 
" My dear Friends, 

" The past few days have been so full of 
danger and responsibility, that it has been im- 
possible to write any earlier account of the stir- 
ring events through which we have so recently 
passed. 

" Thursday morning, Feb. 29, after a fort- 
night's New Year vacation, we opened our 
school, and the day was spent in an earnest 
effort to settle into routine work as speedily as 
possible. At the close of the afternoon session, 
Mrs. Calhoun called for me, and together we 
made calls on two princesses. Our first call 
was charming, when the prince joined us and 
His Highness vied with Mrs. Calhoun in taking 
pictures of us all. The second call, however, 
was a gloomy one, indeed. The princess re- 
ceived us with a warm welcome, but instantly 
began to talk of China's desperate condition, 
and the certain disturbance before us. We tried 
our best to assure Her Highness that there was 
still a future bright and prosperous before 
China, and the whole world marvelled at the 
bloodless revolution, and the great President 
who had brought about such a peaceful solution 
of affairs politic. Her Highness refused to be 
comforted and said that her nation had not yet 
recovered from the shame of 1900, only to be 
plunged into the deeper disgrace of the present 



210 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

hour. We could not account for her mood, and 
yet, just one hour later, the riot started outside 
the Ch'i Hua Men which was to continue until 
this whole great city was involved. 

" At 7 o'clock I led a song service for the 
girls, and at its close at 7 130, we heard from all 
sides the sharp report of firing, but as we were 
so near the great Lantern Festival, we all. 
thought that a few ardent spirits had started 
their celebration of firecrackers earlier than their 
wont. The noise continued so insistent that sev- 
eral of us sought our college tower, and from 
this splendid vantage point saw several large 
fires but newly started. The moon was nearly 
full. As the night wore on, we saw as many 
as fifty fires on three sides of us, and, as we 
watched them growing nearer, a considerable 
breeze blowing and the sparks flying from all 
sides, it seemed very probable our compound 
was doomed. 

" Our eighty girls were wonderful in their 
composure and bravery, and flew to fill every 
bucket and tub on the place with water. We 
tried to keep them together in the large lower 
hall, so that they might not see how near we 
were to danger, for the heavens were one mass 
of luried flames, a sight to strike terror to the 
heart of the bravest veteran. 

" Miss Browne and I stayed with the girls in' 
the hall from 8 to 11 P. M., trying every sane 
scheme possible to divert their minds, and finally 
about midnight we persuaded them to go to the 
dormitory and try to sleep. We then mounted 
the tower, where we stayed till after 4 A. M. 
and watched a never-to-be-forgotten sight. 

" It had been previously arranged that, in 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 211 

case of sudden danger, rockets should be sent 
off from our tower as a signal, asking for guards 
from the American Legation. The rockets were 
sent up at eleven, but, on account of the large 
fires all around, were not noticed at the Lega- 
tion. Mr. Whallon, however, who was dining at 
the London Mission that evening, and, seeing 
our rockets, made straight for the Legation, to 
offer his services as pilot, and was hence the 
first to notify them of our danger. 

" About midnight 20 marines reached us with 
orders to escort the women and children to the 
M. E. Mission. The poor kiddies were taken 
out of their warm beds, and Bettine, Borgen and 
Jimpse — only three years old, all walked the 
long mile to that compound. (Children of Rev. 
and Mrs. Stelle, Cong, missionaries.) Six of us 
ladies stayed behind with the girls, as it was 
thought most unwise to move them, with the 
streets thronged with looting soldiers. 

" Mr. Stelle, our senior missionary, had been 
in bed for five weeks, with neuritis, unable to 
take a step, but he insisted on remaining with us, 
although Mrs. Stelle and the three children 
obeyed orders. 

" Seven of the Lockart Medical Faculty had 
gone out to the Western Hills for a brief rest 
before opening school, so our Dr. Young was 
away and our gentlemen numbered but four, 
counting in two of our Shansi missionaries. 

" Leaving us a corporal and 6 marines, the 
rest of the guard escorted the fifteen women 
and children down to the Methodist Compound. 
On all sides they saw the systematic looting, as 
bands of 20 soldiers and two small officers halted 
before every sizable shop on the Hataman and, 



212 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

at a given order, hurled themselves against the 
door, which of necessity gave way, and then 
proceeded to take everything of value, always 
securing the money-tills and breaking open the 
safes. 

" From our vantage point on the tower, we 
could hear the hurried tramp of feet as they stead- 
ily came up Teng Shih K'ou, the street we live 
on. Shop after shop was reached, then came 
the frantic kicks, the breaking in of the doors, 
a few shots into the air, and on to the street. 

" Our street chapel was approached, and a 
soldier seized the chapel-keeper's wrist with the 
demand of * money/ but the keeper said : * This 
is a Gospel Hall/ and the soldiers, looking up 
at the sign overhead, said : ' You are right ; we 
want nothing of you here,' and the band moved 
on. The cigarette shop directly to the left of our 
front gate was looted of 3,000 taels, and then the 
soldiers crossed to Te Chang's, the large foreign 
store and restaurant, and the best curio shop in 
the city, where gifts suitable for the Emperor 
and Empress were to be had. 

" The first intent was to consign it to the 
flames, and, as our American guard arrived, they 
said they saw the soldiers with torches just 
ready to start the fire. A wiser counsel pre- 
vailed, however, for these looting soldiers said 
that if Te Chang's were set on fire, our Ameri- 
can Board Compound would be doomed indeed, 
for our buildings must need perish, too. Hence 
it was decided to loot the premises of every- 
thing, and early next morning we looked on 
the wreckage of this great and valuable stock; 
the looters having made off with 200,000 taels' 
worth of foreign stones and rarest of curios. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 213 

As we listened from the house-top, we heard 
the continual crashing of glass, and saw the 
looters, lantern in hand, hastening all over the 
large building, that not a corner might be 
missed. 

" The alley directly back of our girls' school 
was filled with bands of looters all night long, 
and, of course, in the wake of the looting sol- 
diers came scores of beggars and unprincipled 
men, who took all the soldiers left. 

" You will doubtless remember the Tung An 
Shih Chang, the large daily fair just below us. 
Every single building was burned to the ground, 
and the area covered made a tremendous blaze. 
On the north the flames came nearest to us, 
there being a large coffin shop on one street cor- 
ner, the great heavy coffins producing a very 
lurid pyre. 

" Shortly after 4 A. M. we came down from 
the tower, and, lying down just as we were, 
secured about two hours' rest before breakfast. 
A number of us then started to see the ruins 
on our street; and in Te Chang's store, all that 
was left in the foreign part was one broken 
mustard pot and a few glass chandeliers, too 
heavy to move. The whole firm had rushed for 
our compound during the night, and had slept 
in our kitchen, and, as they told us that their 
nearness to us had alone saved their store from 
flames, their gratitude was very real. 

" Early in the morning H. E. Hu Wei Te, 
the president of the Wai Wu Pu, and his wife, 
who live just west of us, had crawled out on to 
some roofs and down a ladder into our school 
court, and spent the night in our guest room. 
Forty members of Tuan Fang's younger 



214 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

brothers family, who live just back of us, in 
their terror had deliberately torn a hole in our 
back wall and piled in head first, and were over- 
joyed to be huddled together in one room of our 
Bible School for the night. 

" All day Friday frightened women and chil- 
dren, each with her tale of terror, came pouring 
into our compound. On the streets martial law 
prevailed, and the soldiers and police had orders 
to execute immediately anyone caught looting, 
and the servants would rush in, telling of an 
execution just above or below us, or the execu- 
tioner with his .gruesome tools would pass by, 
while we waited and wondered what the night 
would bring forth. Several Y. M. C. A. men 
came up to help guard our premises, so, with our 
small guard of marines we numbered twelve men 
and six women. We prevailed upon Miss Miner 
and Mrs. Ament to go to bed, and Miss Vander- 
slice and I were on guard in the girls' court 
from 7 to 12 P. M., while Miss Browne and 
Miss Reed watched from midnight to four in the 
morning. 

" At midnight Miss Vanderslice and I got to- 
gether a hearty lunch for the twelve men, and 
again lying down in our clothes, secured about 
three hours' sleep. 

" During the night we counted ten fires over 
in the West City, but were comparatively safe 
in our Tartar City. 

" All day Saturday martial law again pre- 
vailed, and, after many conferences, it was de- 
cided that Miss Browne, Miss Vanderslice and 
I should take our ninety girls and move into the 
M. E. Mission Compound, while Miss Miner, 
Mrs. Ament and Miss Reed stayed by the stuff, 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 215 

having charge of the many refugees in the court 
and neighborhood. 

" The girls were ordered to put on as many 
clothes as possible, and carry with them their 
bedding, and one small ' pao fu,' or bundle. 
Such a sight as we made as we left the com- 
pound. The U. S. army wagon piled high with 
dozens of 'pei wus ' (sacks of bedding), and 
on the top a gallant marine, who smiled fre- 
quently as he watched us march two by two 
along the dusty street. We were promised an 
escort of fifty men, but, as it was growing late, 
we decided not to wait, and fared forth with 
but a single stout corporal, Zacharias by name, 
to whom we had ministered at a midnight lunch, 
receiving his very warm thanks for our atten- 
tion. 

" We shall never cease to marvel at the spa- 
ciousness of the Methodist Episcopal Compound, 
and at their unparalleled hospitality. In their 
girls' school premises were lodged five different 
schools; 150 of their own, 45 Anglicans, 27 Lon- 
don Mission, 6 Blind, and 90 of our Board, so 
that we were indeed an interdenominational 
throng. 

" Sabbath night I led a song service, and never 
have I heard better and more musical singing 
than just these 300 girls praising God for the 
deliverance of the past nights. 

" Saturday Mr. Calhoun wired for 200 ma- 
rines to come up at once from Tientsin, and sent 
half a company to each of the four American 
Mission Compounds to stay until a settled gov- 
ernment is an accomplished fact. To put up 
57 men in comfortable quarters for an indefinite 
period has been no mean task, but fortunately 



216 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

our parish house proved just the thing the doc- 
tor ordered. The upper room serves as dormi- 
tory and the lower as mess room and reading 
room, while Lieutenant Cowles boards with Mrs. 
Martin. 

"Alas! for our central grass plot! the pride 
of our summer days! It now serves as a 
parade ground and the soldiers march hither 
and yon with never a thought of the hard- 
earned grass they so blithely crush to destruc- 
tion. 

"Two large tents stand at the lower end 
of our compound, the bugle rings out as 
insistently as our school bell, and how thank- 
ful we are both for our guards and for our 
school ! 

" Sabbath afternoon a parade of 800 men of 
every foreign guard in the city marched over 
a twelve-mile course, as it was thought the sight 
of such a substantial and well-equipped foreign 
force would be productive of many good results. 
The parade was repeated yesterday and a worthy 
sight it is. 

" After the soldiers were fairly settled in 
their new quarters a guard came down after us, 
and we marched back in the same dignified fash- 
ion of two days before, though with a much 
cheerier tread. It seems wonderful that, after 
two such dreadful nights of Thursday and Fri- 
day, we could as peacefully take up our work 
again, open kindergarten and primary schools, 
and apparently be in real safety. 

" The black, yawning spaces, where fire did 
her work, will long mar our great city; but we 
are thankful that only one large gate into the 
Imperial City perished; for that night in the 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 217 

tower one wondered again and again if all Pe- 
king's beautiful landmarks must go. 

" We all echo the text of Dr. Hobart's ser- 
mon on Sabbath — ' God is Love/ 

May N. Corbett.' 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE REVOLUTIONARY OUTBREAK IN SI-AN-FU 

REV. E. J. ELLISON, of the English Bap- 
tist Mission, came to Wei Hsien from 
Si-an-fu, Shensi, and told his story of 
robbery and peril. 

On October 22nd, the morning of the eclipse, 
the trouble broke out and battle raged for five 
days. The Manchu city formed a separate part 
of the northeast section of the city. The Eng- 
lish Baptist Mission is in the east suburb, the 
Swedish in the south suburb. The dispensary in 
the city proper. The opium patients were treat- 
ed in the east suburb by Dr. Robertson, who 
came out of the city to see his opium patients 
the day of the trouble, and could not get back to 
the city to help Dr. Charter, as the city gates 
were closed. He felt very badly about this, but 
it was God's clear plan for him, as he was the 
only doctor who was at hand when Rev. Donald 
Smith and his wife were brought back. They 
had gone with the pupils of the girls' school, 
taking them in carts out of the city, but had only 
gone a few li out when they were beset by rob- 
bers. The girls all escaped in safety to their 
218 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 219 

homes, but Rev. Smith and his wife were ter- 
ribly beaten and robbed. They could do noth- 
ing but pray for help, as they were unable to 
walk and had no carts. Mr. Smith's arms were 
broken in trying to defend his wife. Finally a 
native Christian boy discovered them in this piti- 
able condition and brought help. Two Chinese 
men supported Mrs. Smith, and her husband, 
weak from loss of blood, was carried back on a 
barrow. The morning service had passed off as 
usual, but before noon the streets were very 
noisy and excited. The arsenal where the Man- 
chus had their best guns stored was stormed by 
the Revolutionary soldiers two days prior to the 
day set by the Manchu chief for distributing the 
good new guns to the Manchus. 

The Revolutionaries, learning of the appointed 
day, captured the good weapons from the poor 
Manchus who tried to fight with obsolete rifles 
and other poor weapons mostly useless. The at- 
tack was sudden and many of the Manchus were 
so besotted by use of opium that they could not 
have handled even a rifle to defend themselves, 
so there was a fearful slaughter of over ten 
thousand Manchus. The missionaries heard the 
shots and bursting of bombs and saw the fire, 
and every day asked what the soldiers were do- 
ing. 

Always the same reply: " Killing Manchus! " 
Very few escaped. Only about one hundred, 



220 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

mostly old women, were left, and scarcely a 
house. Several weeks later, Mr. Ellison saw the 
terrible results — heaps of skulls lying in the 
streets. 

The Beckman family lived in the Swedish mis- 
sion which was attacked by ruffians (not Revo- 
lutionaries) on October 23rd. Mrs. Beckman 
and six Swedish school-girls were killed. Also 
Mr. Vehne and Mrs. Beckman's sixteen-year-old 
daughter. When the place was attacked about 
midnight, Mr. Vehne helped the young girl over 
the city wall and they escaped to a village forty 
li away, where the people were kind and cared 
for them till a scoundrel who dogged their steps 
came to the village and incited the people to kill 
them. Mr. Beckman tried to save his wife and 
family by picking a hole through the city wall, 
hoping to save all the others, too, in that way, 
but the ruffians attacked them and they became 
separated. Mr. Beckman only succeeded in sav- 
ing his youngest child, three years old. He es- 
caped to a deep moat of water which was around 
the city wall and stood for two hours waist deep 
in the middle of this moat, holding his child on 
his shoulder. The Chinese waited on all sides 
of the moat except on one very steep side, and 
he heard them say: 

" No use to watch that side, it is too steep. 
He could not possibly get up, and we can easily 
get him in the morning." 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 221 

It was then very dark and all were tired, and 
no Chinaman likes to get wet wading in moats, 
so they extinguished their torches and slept. 
Slowly Mr. Beckman crossed the water to the 
steep side and placed his child high up on a ledge. 
It cried at first, but he took it down again and 
whispered, " Don't cry," and the second time it 
was quiet, and with great difficulty he crawled 
up and got off with his child and back to the 
city. 

Appearing at the English Baptist Mission door, 
he held out his child in his arms, saying : " This 
is all I've got!" While standing in the moat, 
he had heard the Chinese say how they had killed 
his wife and children. Mr. Beckman took refuge 
with the English Baptists in their mission. 

Dr. Charter was called out to attend the post- 
master, Mr. Henne, who was hurt in the street. 
He was gone twenty-two hours, as he could not 
get through the riotous mob on the streets. In 
his absence, Mrs. Charter and a single lady were 
alone with the baby, who was dying. Many 
rioters beat at their gate, shouting : " Open ! 
Open ! " They were Mohammedans. An hour 
after Dr. Charter returned the child died. 

Mr. Ellison said their faithful servant came 
rushing in, sobbing, and telling them of the 
murders of the Beckmans, and urged them to 
flee at once, as the soldiers were coming in an 
hour's time. They now feel it would have been 



222 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

better if they had all remained, but they left in 
three parties — one party, Rev. Donald and Mrs. 
Smith with some school-girls; another party of 
school-girls in care of trusty Chinese Christians. 
The remaining missionaries formed the third 
party, and these all had only gone about three 
li out when they were set upon by about a hun- 
dred rude boys and young men, who rushed 
down the side of a very high mound where they 
were standing watching the burning of the 
Manchu city. Pell-mell they rushed at the little 
band of foreigners, hurling clods of earth and 
hooting and jeering at them. They stole all their 
bedding, tearing it off the backs of the animals. 
The leaders of the mob prevented the mission- 
aries from mounting upon the animals, and told 
them they must go back to the city. 

Some cried : " Better get swords and kill them 
now!" 

They robbed the missionaries, two and three 
of the robbers impatiently tearing out each 
pocket to get the silver. Mr. Stanley took his 
silver in both hands and threw it over their 
heads, and thus gave the mob a great chase to get 
it, so relieving the pressure about his person. 

Mr. Ellison said it was " most exciting to hear 
the mob tell the various ways they meant to kill 
them ; " but as soon as they had seen the mission- 
aries inside the gate of the city, strange to say, 
the mob left them ! 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 



They returned to the mission which was un- 
touched, and all sat together and held a prayer 
service. After this, the good news came to 
them that the Revolutionary soldiers had ordered 
that the missionaries were not to be disturbed, 
and soldiers came to protect them. They lived 
in peace for two months and carried on their 
work. All the school -girls came back safe. Then 
came a relief party of nine men, headed by Rev. 
Keyte, brave men, who nobly risked their lives 
going on this extremely perilous journey, but 
they secured the protection of Revolutionary sol- 
diers, and after some adventures reached the 
mission in safety. In this party were two hunt- 
ers, who, under the Carnegie Institute, hunt and 
stuff birds and animals for Washington, D. C. 
One was a tobacconist, who always disliked mis- 
sionaries before, but came to alter his opinion. 

Then Yuan Shih K'ai sent word for them all 
to come out, sending an escort of soldiers for 
them, and so they travelled through a stretch of 
villages entirely deserted. Even the inn-keepers 
had run away, so wherever they rested at night 
they just " collared " an inn. On the way out 
over the country they came to a place where the 
soldiers were getting out their artillery preparing 
for a battle. They had been fighting the day be- 
fore and were about to begin again, but, strange 
to say, they actually suspended their battle until 
the entire missionary party had passed through. 



224 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

Ghastly was the sight that met their gaze as they 
made their way along through slaughtered hosts 
of people lying stark over the ground. The la- 
dies closed their eyes till their carts had passed 
to a peaceful region. After much inconvenience 
they finally reached Peking in safety and trav- 
elled on the railroad at the expense of the Chi- 
nese Government. 

" Do the missionaries flinch in the hour of 
trial ?" says an editor. "In the great city of 
Si-an-fu a sentence entered my heart spoken by 
a gentle woman as naturally as one might say 
" Good morning." 

We sat together planning for an advance in 
the province of Shensi, and the question arose, 
" Who would go forward and occupy a certain 
city further north." After prayer and confer- 
ence, it seemed as if by general consent one 
brother was designated, and he expressed his 
willingness to go if his wife were also willing. 
It meant facing loneliness, enduring hardship, 
danger, and many discomforts, and yet when 
she was asked whether she would go, she smiled 
and quietly replied : "lam here on business for 
my King." I truthfully declare that I am 
thrilled from head to foot even as I write the 
words. There was no parade of courage nor 
call for sympathy. Such things were all in the 
day's work for one who had long ago made the 
great surrender. Well, it was business for the 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 225 

King, and He would not forget." " And He 
said unto them, Where is your Faith ? " 



BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC 



Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the 

Lord; 
He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of 

wrath are stored; 
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible 

swift sword: 
Our God is marching on — 

Glory, glory ! Hallelujah ! 
His truth is marching on. 



I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred 

circling camps; 
They have builded Him an altar in the evening 

dews and damps; 
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and 

flaring lamps; 
Our God is marching on. 



He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never 
call retreat; 

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judg- 
ment-seat ; 

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, 
my feet. 

Our God is marching on. 



226 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across 

the sea, 
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and 

me: 
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make 

men free, 
While God is marching on." 

— Julia W. Howe. 



CHAPTER XXIV 



ANNIVERSARY DAY OF THE REPUBLIC OF 
CHINA 



ON October ioth, 191 1, the first outbreak 
of the Revolution in Wu Chang began, 
and on October ioth, 19 12, I arrived in 
Shanghai, on the great patriotic festival day, 
celebrating the first " Independence Day " in 
China. As we sailed in the harbour, all Shang- 
hai was gay and brilliant with Republican flags 
fluttering all along the water's edge. Even in 
that early morning hour, the people were out, 
busily preparing their holiday. The city was 
decorated everywhere, in the Chinese sections of 
both the foreign settlement and the native city, 
where acres of bunting and five-colored flags of 
the Republic were hung up, and myriads of pa- 
per lanterns and electric incandescents trans- 
formed the streets into brilliant spectacles. The 
Republican flag floated from every house-top. 
Many receptions were held, bands played, and 
there were military processions and two big 
torchlight and lantern parades. Thousands of 
soldiers, volunteers, firemen, merchants and 
227 



228 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

20,000 students all took part in the demonstra- 
tions. The World's Students' Federation sub- 
scribed a good sum of money to entertain the 
poor, helpless children, and orphans, who cele- 
brated and feasted as heartily as their more 
fortunate brothers. Receptions were held at the 
Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, the 
headquarters of the Chapei, the city volunteers 
and fire brigade and the Chinese company of 
Shanghai Volunteer Corps. Also receptions 
were held under the auspices of the various po- 
litical societies, the native courts and councils, 
the World's Chinese Students' Federation and 
the guilds. All banks and stores were closed, 
and all China had a glorious holiday. 

The Chinese deserved to have a joyful time, 
for the Chinese revolution is a remarkable 
achievement without a parallel in modern his- 
tory. Twelve months from the first act of re- 
bellion has found a two-centuries-and-a-half es- 
tablished government by Manchu oppressors, 
completely overthrown. The new regime is wel- 
comed by the almost unanimous sympathy and 
approval of civilization. It is hailed as a defi- 
nite breaking with the archaic past, and the en- 
trance of China into the family of modern na- 
tions. On December 15th, 191 2, a great meet- 
ing was held to form the Upper and Lower 
House and establish a permanent government. 

Mr. T. R. Jernigan, former U. S. Consul Gen- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 229 

eral at Hong Kong and Shanghai, says : " The 
foreigner who has resided in China knows that 
under the government of the Manchu there was 
no government, in a western sense, in China. 
The president of the Republic entered upon his 
duties without compass or chart. He found no 
governmental machinery suitable as a guide in 
the great change which the country had under- 
gone. The Stuarts of England had usurped and 
nullified the law, but Cromwell formed the law 
on the Statute Book, and restored it. Washing- 
ton had before him the Statute law of England 
and the decisions of the English courts. But 
President Yuan had no such precedents, and he 
has to develop out of a new order of the national 
situation the principles to assure its stability and 
make it beneficial for the people. If the Repub- 
lic has not moved along faster, it should not be, 
under the circumstances, a discouraging aspect. 
The really encouraging aspect is the effort to 
establish a judicial system to warrant confidence 
in its competency and integrity. The young 
men of China who have graduated in the law 
schools of the West and returned home are now 
engaged in framing a system of courts for their 
country which will remove the stigma that has 
so long rested upon a Chinese court. The influ- 
ence of England is greatly due to the incorrupti- 
bility of her courts, and in the American govern- 
ment the meaning of the organic law is left to 



230 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

the interpretation of a Supreme Court. Thus it 
appears that the two more prosperous nations of 
the world recognize the necessity that their courts 
must be free of reproach. 

Another favorable aspect for the Republic is 
that the people of China are inherently demo- 
cratic. The lessons taught by their Sages have 
impressed on them the democratic idea. Confu- 
cius inculcates the doctrine that the people have 
the right to dethrone an unjust Emperor, and 
Mencius, more democratic still, taught that " the 
people were of the highest importance, the gods 
come second, the Sovereign is of lesser weight." 
China is the only Asiatic nation whose people 
have been schooled in the belief that with them 
resided ultimate Sovereign power, and this fact 
promises well for the Republic. Even when the 
Manchu despotism was entrenched strongest, it 
sometimes yielded to the influence of public opin- 
ion, and the abolition of the opium habit show£ 
what can be accomplished by an organized public 
sentiment in China. 

But evidently the West is not convinced that 
the Republic is permanently established, as rec- 
ognition is still withheld and there is also mani- 
fested a want of confidence in regard to busi- 
ness, because the principal banks of the West re- 
fuse to loan the government money, except upon 
the condition of supervising the expenditure. 
The mistrust thus evidenced will have to be re- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 231 

moved ere the Republic of China will he admit- 
ted to a seat in the International Council of Na- 
tions, and the doubt shown, as to the stability 
of the present form of government and its finan- 
cial uprightness, is not, unfortunately, shared 
alone by the West. A large majority of the sub- 
stantial native business men of China entertain 
a similar doubt, specially with reference to 
money and its judicious use by those in author- 
ity and when the misgivings indicated are re- 
placed by acts of administrative competency and 
fidelity, then and only then will appear the 
brightest aspect for the Republic and the pur- 
pose of the revolution realized. It is just, how- 
ever, that the difficulties which the new govern- 
ment has encountered be patiently appreciated by 
the West, and unjust to condemn it for not 
emerging from a situation that would tax experi- 
enced statesmen." 



NORTH AND SOUTH UNITED, DECLARES PRESIDENT 
YUAN SHIH k'aI 

President Yuan Shih K'ai, in his anniversary 
pronunciamento published on Anniversary Day, 
October ioth, 1912, takes Washington as his 
model and guide, praises the men who led the 
Revolution; expresses confidence in the future; 
aims to break up the stubborn conservatism of 
the people and lead them into consonance with 



232 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

the world's views. He says : " When the Nan- 
king Government had been disbanded, Dr. Sun 
Yat Sen and Mr. Huang Hsing remained the 
foremost men of their time, and I was most 
emphatic in urging them to come to Peking. 
Since that event took place, the last trace of the 
suspicion formerly existing between North and 
South has melted away like the melting of ice. 
It became possible to unite with these two gentle- 
men in the drawing up of Eight Articles setting 
forth the Government's fundamental policies in 
all that concerns internal administration." 
The following are the: 

GOVERNMENT POLICIES AGREED 

UPON BY PRESIDENT YUAN SHIH 

K'AI, VICE-PRESIDENT LI YUAN 

HUNG, DR. SUN YAT SEN, AND 

FIELD MARSHAL HUANG HSING 

I. In the creation of the Nation the attain- 
ment of unity will be the settled policy. 

II. A sincere discrimination between right 
and wrong will be the guiding principle, that the 
people may be morally improved. 

III. The creation of an army and navy will 
be for the present postponed. The training of 
the necessary men will be the first thing at- 
tended to. 

IV. The doors will be opened to the intro- 
duction of foreign capital for the development 
of railways and mines and the erection of steel 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 233 

and iron plants, thus conducing to the material 
prosperity of the people. 

V. Popular subsidized industrial enterprises 
will be inaugurated, and the beginnings will be 
made in the fields of agriculture, forestry, manu- 
factures, and commerce. 

VI. Control over military matters, foreign re- 
lations, governmental finance, laws, and commu- 
nications will be vested in the central govern- 
ment; other interests will be relegated to local 
control as the conditions of the provinces may 
warrant. 

VII. The finances of the nation will be put 
on an organized footing in the shortest possible 
time. 

VIII. As the Sine Qua Non of recognition 
of the Republic by other nations, efforts will be 
made to reconcile party differences and to pre- 
serve peace and order. 

DR. SUN YAT SEN'S VISIT TO PEKING 

Dr. Sun arrived in Peking August 24th by 
special train, which was hauled by a gaily deco- 
rated locomotive. A brightly colored triumphal 
arch had been erected in the station yard, 
guarded by strong military hosts, to avoid any 
tragedy on arrival, and tickets were issued only 
to those specially permitted. Such a military 
demonstration as was witnessed on this occasion 
has seldom been seen in Peking. The President 
had issued orders that the strictest possible pre- 
cautions were to be adopted to ensure the safety 



234 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

of his guest, and from Feugtai to Peking (about 
seven miles) both sides of the railway were lined 
by troops posted, facing inwards and outwards 
alternately, with their rifles at the " ready." Sol- 
diers were drawn up on each platform at the sta- 
tion. The five-colored flag of the Republic was 
in evidence everywhere, not only at the railroad 
station, but in every thorough fare in Peking. A 
dense crowd of spectators, Chinese and foreign, 
gathered, including Chinese military and naval 
officers resplendent in new uniforms, members 
of the Cabinet in frock coats and top hats, at 
least three military bands, each of which played 
independently and added to the din as the train 
came to a standstill, and the officials deputed by 
the President to welcome Dr. Sun entered his 
car; while the crowd surged, waving hats in the 
air and cheering. Dr. Sun rode from the sta- 
tion in a magnificent barouche, upholstered in 
satin of imperial yellow, which had wheels of 
bright red and drawn by two white horses. The 
troops presented arms, and a squadron of Chi- 
nese cavalry closed in around Dr. Sun's carriage 
as he left the station. He was accommodated in 
the new Foreign Office building, which was 
elaborately prepared for his reception. 

Dr. Sun and President Yuan held a confer- 
ence of many hours on August 25th, and both 
afterwards declared that they were in perfect 
agreement on all important questions. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 235 

Dr. Sun addressed two leading political soci- 
eties, visited the T'ung Ming Hui Club, and de- 
clared his personal desire to see Yuan Shih K'ai 
appointed President, and said he would work for 
that end. He said he would urge everywhere 
the necessity of establishing a strong central 
government and the development of the eco- 
nomic resources of the country, particularly the 
railways. 

He says in his anniversary speech : 

" Imagine what America would be today 
without her railways. Then believe that China 
will remain ever the same unless railways are 
built. 

" The full details of my plan for the con- 
struction of railways are not, of course, worked 
out but, in a general way we know what we are 
going to do. There will be numerous great 
trunk lines crossing the country from end to 
end. Hi will know Shantung, Moukden will 
have a speaking acquaintance with Canton, and 
Yunnan fu will consider Taiyuanfu as a brother. 
Wonderful is the future when China becomes 
fully acquainted with herself and realizes what 
can be done. No longer will provincial distinc- 
tions cause friction; in time, it is reasonable 
to suppose, this increased intercourse will bring 
about the disappearance of the dialects and 
China will have a common language. 

" There is to be a trunk line from Shanghai 
to Hi. Another trunk will run from Canton to 
Kassar, and still another from Canton to Tibet, 
via Yunanful. The Yangtsze valley, the trans- 



236 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

cendentally important trade centre of the Empire 
will be edged with new lines. Curiously enough, 
Lanchoufu in Kansu, will become a very impor- 
tant center because there will be as many as 
thirteen railways centering at that city. 



CAPITALS TO BE RAILWAY CENTRES 

" The capitals of all the provinces will be rail- 
way centres. From these important cities lines 
will radiate in every direction until every capital 
will have eight or nine railways leading from it. 
This may sound as though China will be literally 
swamped with railways, but the size of the coun- 
try should be remembered. Even when this 
project is completed there will be room for more 
construction. And it is probable that the com- 
mercial development of the country will require 
more lines. 

" Completion of the present plan means com- 
mercial prosperity, increased riches, better and 
more markets, justifying and encouraging in- 
creased production, but most of all it means 
unity, and that is most important for unity 
means self-preservation. Once unified and pros- 
perous China will stand as a great nation of the 
world, not to be trifled with nor imposed upon 
nor partitioned. The time is coming when China 
can hold her own and prevent foreign aggres- 



The Empress Dowager did her part in honor- 
ing the great revolutionary hero. She received 
him at the Summer Palace and Baby King, on 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 237 

his good behaviour, standing by his tutor on the 
lawn, dressed in his stately little yellow silk 
robes. It is said his young Highness keeps 
everybody around the palace busy with his 
pranks. He enjoys himself very much on a 
rainy day, running outside in his costly little gar- 
ments, and plays about as long as he likes, and 
then calling to the eunuchs to come and get him, 
he will wade out in the deepest puddles and 
laugh and clap his hands with glee, as he watches 
the eunuchs who have to wade out after him, 
and say or do nothing to offend the " Son of 
heaven." 

President Yuan gave a feast to Dr. Sun in 
Peking, and the Chinese everywhere feel that 
this visit has healed all differences between North 
and South, and henceforth the united Republic 
is a success. 

Dr. Sun also visited Tsingtau, the German 
port at Shantung, and was welcomed by the Chi- 
nese in the Government school and in the chapel, 
which was crowded with eager loyal listeners. 
His dialect was not well understood, but he ex- 
horted all to be loyal and uphold the principles 
of truth and honesty. His visit was coincident 
with the visit to Tsingtau of the German Prince 
Heinrich, who arrived a few days previous and 
was enthusiastically received by the Germans 
there, civil and military. On a previous visit of 
Prince Henry to China, as he entered the Astor 



238 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

House in Shanghai, his retainers asked the clerk 
to prepare a room for the great German Prince. 
Not at all awed by royalty, the clerk shouted: 
" Boy ! want room top side one piecee Princee ! 
Savvey ? " 

AMNESTY PROCLAMATION 

Forgives Enemies 

President Yuan Shih K'ai issued on October 
9th a mandate, stating : " A Republic is the best 
form of government in the world, and the Par- 
liament is the keynote of the policy of the Re- 
public. I, the President, have acted in every- 
thing with the object of maintaining unity and 
restoring order ever since my acceptance of 
office. For only after unity comes order, and 
then alone can we plan the constructional work 
of the Republic. The essential points in con- 
structional work should all be decided by the 
Parliament. The election of members is an equi- 
table privilege of the five great Popular fam- 
ilies. The chief point to be observed is that not 
the slightest omission owing to laxity may hap- 
pen during the course of preparations. Thereby 
the Parliament when established may have true 
energy and spirit. When the nation's basis is 
strengthened, the power of the people will cer- 
tainly expand, for which state I, the President, 
entertain the fondest hope." 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 239 

" During the latter part of the rule of the 
former Ch'ing, the officials and the gentry of 
various provinces had in their suppression of 
revolutionaries, arrested and killed the innocent, 
and had acted perhaps over-violently. Yet they 
were impelled to do so by their duty and office. 
Now the Republic has triumphed, all persons are 
permitted to lead a new life. The past should 
of course be buried in oblivion, and men should 
help each other to begin life again. The officials 
and gentry of old are still mostly in hiding in 
doubt and fear, or in some cases under the pro- 
tection of questionable people. Our officials and 
their underlings, who do not understand mag- 
nanimity, are persecuting them now and then, 
and even throwing them into prison upon their 
return home. These acts are contrary to the true 
principle of Republicanism. The administrative 
superior officials of the provinces are hereby no- 
tified that with the exception of those committing 
offences at present, no further persecution shall 
be made with regard to crimes committed prior 
to the Revolution Those who have emigrated or 
fled somewhere else shall be permitted to return 
each to his own native town and pursue a quiet 
livelihood." 

dr. Morrison's hopeful view of the republic 

Dr. Morrison, late correspondent of the Lon- 
don Times, now adviser of the Chinese Govern- 



240 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

ment, during his recent visit to England, has in- 
spired with hope the skeptical editors of the vari- 
ous leading newspapers who declined to believe 
that an oriental nation, steeped in the tradition of 
autocracy and the sentiment of kingship, could 
find in a republic a secure form of political or- 
ganization. The marked change of tone shows 
in the following condensed article in the Ob- 
server: 

" We see China as through a glass, darkly. 
The predicted collapse somehow does not come 
to pass. The sturdy President, Yuan Shih-k'ai, 
manages in some undiscernible manner to main- 
tain his place. His rivals either conclude to 
obey him, or seek the alternative of retirement. 
Dr. Sun Yat Sen appears in a transient blaze of 
glory at Peking, and vanishes once more upon 
mysterious and unrecorded missions. Money 
comes in, we do not quite know how, but ap- 
parently it suffices for the moment. The ma- 
chinery of government would stop in a day if 
China was absolutely penniless. We suspect 
that large numbers of high officials must have 
heavy arrears of pay, but they say no word. 

" And within the mists that cloud the East 
we see dim visions of the manifold activities 
of trade, which continues unchecked. All 
through the Middle Kingdom the myriads are 
toiling, the great rivers swarm with craft, the 
seas without are ceaselessly threaded by ships. 
If China seems paralyzed her heart still throbs. 
But is China really paralyzed? We doubt it. 
Amid the confusion we catch glimpses of high 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 241 

endeavor, stray gropings after light, disorgan- 
ised struggles to evolve new beginnings out of 
chaos. Perhaps the most wonderful character- 
istic of China is her infinite capacity to survive 
the severest shocks. An imperial dynasty passes, 
but through the dust of its overthrow we descry 
the countless millions still slaving for their daily 
bread. They ' suffer still, and grieve,' but they 
represent that impregnable solidity which en- 
ables China to endure the most formidable re- 
verses. Nearly four hundred millions of the 
most industrious people on earth cannot well be- 
come moribund, as the late Lord Salisbury once 
said. 

" It was said that the President would soon 
be assassinated, but he still lives. It was said 
that China would fall into three or four inde- 
pendent sections, but it still hangs together. It 
was said that the provinces would lapse into in- 
extinguishable civil strife, but the whole vast 
Empire has gradually become almost uncannily 
quiet. It was said that China would become 
bankrupt and that trade would abruptly stop, 
but funds still dribble into Peking and the re- 
turns show that the volume of trade is just now 
unusually large. China, in short, still survives 
and though some doleful predictions about her 
may still be realised, we have to remember that 
they show no present likelihood of being ful- 
filled." 

FORM OF GOVERNMENT 

" It is not, after all, very much the business 
of Great Britain whether China adopts a repub- 
lican or any other form of government. What 



242 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

we want to see in China, is strong and stable 
control. If a republic is the only possible form 
of control at the present moment, we should at 
least not endeavor to impede its establishment. 
We may have our misgivings, but they should 
not lead us into active opposition. In helping 
the Chinese republic, we incidentally help our- 
selves. There is not much altruism in modern 
international politics, and we need not pause to 
discover unselfish motives which are not very 
conspicuously felt. The greatest present need 
of China is money, not money in cataracts and 
without stint, but sufficient money to enable 
the republic to establish its new executive ad- 
ministration on a firm footing." 



CHAPTER XXV 



MORAL PHASES AND OUTLOOK OF THE 
REVOLUTION 



PRESIDENT YUAN and Dr. Sun have 
given anniversary manifestos which are 
both characterized by that spirit of sin- 
cerity and straightforward singleness of pur- 
pose which have brought these men to the high 
positions which they now occupy. 

President Yuan and Dr. Sun have been 
charged with working with motives of personal 
ambition, but these charges must now be laid to 
rest with the other premonitions of disaster to 
China. 

If Dr. Sun is ambitious for personal power in 
China, his greatest obstacle would be in the per- 
son of Yuan Shih K'ai. Conversely, if Presi- 
dent Yuan entertains ideas of becoming the Na- 
poleon of China, the first and strongest opposi- 
tion he would find would be in Dr. Sun. Yet 
each in his articles written for The China Press 
takes occasion to express his friendship for the 
other. 

243 



244 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 



GENERAL Li's ANNIVERSARY MESSAGE 



Renter's Pacific Special to the China Press 
Wu-chang, October 9. — The Vice-President 
has issued a long manifesto, in which he says : 

" To Hupeh belongs the glory of beginning 
the Revolution. The aims of the martyrs who 
lost their lives for the cause have been accom- 
plished. During the year there have been many 
disturbances and executions which have caused 
me much grief. The martyrs died for the Re- 
public and not for anarchy. One revolution is 
enough and constitutional methods should be 
used to effect other changes. Both soldiers and 
the people should attend to their duty and be 
diligent in their work so that they may strength- 
en and enrich the country. Thus will you emu- 
late the public spirit of the departed heroes 
whose memory you will celebrate tomorrow." 

Dr. Timothy Richard, of the Chinese Chris- 
tian Literature Society says : 

" Along with the China Revolution, we have 
witnessed a wonderful ferment in religious cir- 
cles. A Society calling itself the Universal Re- 
ligious Society was formed in Shanghai and it 
held a public meeting in Chang Su Ho's garden 
hall, the biggest in Shanghai. Over two thou- 
sand men and women attended and hundreds 
could not get in for want of room. This So- 
ciety consisted of Christians and non-Christians, 
but all were Revolutionaries and all believed 
that the new government could not be stable 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 245 

without religion as a sound foundation. Not 
only in Shanghai, but in Yangchow in Kiangsu 
Province, similar large gatherings were held ad- 
vocating the need of religion, and not only non- 
Christians spoke but the military governor in- 
vited Christian leaders to explain the Christian 
religion to the meeting. The same thing hap- 
pened in Peking, the leaders of all religions were 
anxious to have a clear discussion on the uni- 
versal value of religion to all nations. 

" What is the outlook ? We hope when the 
permanent government which is soon to be es- 
tablished, will commence reconstruction in ear- 
nest. We have had enough of destructive policy 
till the nation is beginning to get tired of it. If 
the permanent government will organize modern 
education in all departments, with an efficient 
university in every province, then the rising gen- 
eration will have a supply of able men who can 
undertake all departments of government, in- 
cluding that of religion. 

" At present the priests of China, whether 
Buddhist or Taoist, are proverbially ignorant.. 
They cannot explain the gods whom they wor- 
ship in their temples. Many of them do not 
know their proper names or their history. How 
can they therefore be suitable guides for the na- 
tion at large? 

" This gives a rare opportunity for enlight- 
ened missionaries to sympathise with this de- 
sire for religious reform. 

" The Governor of Yunnan — extreme western 
province of China — said : ' The greatest re- 
ligion in the world is the religion of Jesus Christ. 
Before long it will be the religion of China.' " 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE CHINA PROPAGANDA 

" Righteousness exalteth a Nation ! " 

THE new National awakening and the at- 
tendant changing conditions in China, 
following the great political upheaval, 
have made the past year one of lively interest 
for our Wei Hsien mission, as well as for all the 
China missionary body. While we rejoice in 
the hopeful prospects before us, the increased in- 
terest in Western education, and the widening 
opportunities for Christian service, giving us all 
a cheerrng outlook for the future, yet feeling the 
great need for reinforcements to " help us to 
garner in the sheaves of good from the fields of 
sin," we humbly pray the Lord of the harvest 
to bless the cause of the China Propaganda, that 
there may be many more suitable men and 
women added to our force. 

When the sad news of the serious illness of 

our honoured and noble co-worker, Dr. Wm. B. 

Hamilton, came to us, we bowed in awe before 

the shadow of death, and each heart echoed Dr. 

246 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 247 

Bergen's prayer at that little station meeting: 
" We can't spare him Lord, we are so few ! " 
But God, who " standeth within the shadow, 
keeping watch above His own," has taken our 
brother, and has taken Hudson Taylor and Dr. 
Griffith John after fifty years of work for Christ 
in China, and many more of the foremost mis- 
sionaries, whose efforts for the spread of Chris- 
tianity and Christian education have done incal- 
culable good for the Chinese people. They have 
done their work and God has given them their 
richly earned crown, bright with many stars won 
in China. 

Also some of our strong missionaries, Dr. 
Frank H. Chalfant, and others, have gone for 
health reasons to America, and thus the burden 
falls more heavily on those still on the field. 
While the mighty movement going on in China 
calls for more effort on the part of the mission- 
aries, and realizing how direct and vital are the 
relations between the church of Christ and the 
present awakening in China, we pray that God's 
people at home may rise and with renewed con- 
secration and noble spirit of self-sacrifice, face 
this great responsibility, and with willing hearts 
help us, by freely giving for the support of the 
reinforcements for our ranks. 

I attended a great meeting at the Hupeh Road 
Theatre, Shanghai, and heard Dr. Sun Yat Sen 
address that vast audience, which packed the 



248 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

building from pit to the top gallery, where Mrs. 
Calvin Mateer and I were obliged to go to find 
a seat., For three hours that earnest speaker 
held the floor, fearlessly standing before all those 
people, and his gestures and quick flow of lang- 
uage were of the liveliest and most earnest kind, 
his face all alight with enthusiasm. Mrs. Ma- 
teer and I both thought how brave he was to 
place himself in such a position where he could 
so easily be shot at. Dr. Sun was, while we were 
there, talking about the fundamental principles 
of the Republic and territorial divisions, and held 
that variegated conditions attendant upon the 
present industrial stage of China necessitated 
various remedies. He referred to the principal 
staple industries. His speech, though lengthy, 
was very instructive. People drank tea as they 
listened, tea-pots and bowls being placed con- 
veniently all through the house, and I observed 
many Chinese women among the audience. 

Now, friends at home, give us more mission- 
aries, more schools, more means for carrying on 
this work for Christ in China ! Oh, the need ! I 
am utterly helpless to picture the need, These 
young people, so many of them growing up so 
fast, and the dangers and temptations so grave, 
so many falling into sin. 

Then there are errors creeping into the very 
fold. The church in China and the church at 
home must be vigilant and wide awake and stand 




Reverend Gecrge F. Fitch, D.D., 
Founder of Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai, China 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 249 

firmly for the truth, giving no place to the 
enemy. This is a supreme crisis in the history 
of China, and when we hear of the various er- 
rors which threaten to delude the Americans as 
well as the Chinese people, and lower the stand- 
ards of our blessed true faith, we feel like call- 
ing upon the church of Christ at home to be 
swift to act like David, and say: " Who is this 
uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the 
armies of the living God? ,, 

If anyone thinks there is little work being 
done out here, just let them come and see our 
Presbyterian Mission Press, and have a minute 
only (for he is a very busy man, but always 
kind) with our grand old pioneer, Dr. George F. 
Fitch, who ever since 1870 has honoured God in 
China, through countless printed pages, as well 
as spoken messages, and his consecrated wife 
has brought so many of the Chinese women to 
Christ. You think of the words, " crowned with 
glory," as you look at their faces and see Jesus 
there. 

And then come into the Missionary Home on 
Quinsan Road, and see the earnest missionaries, 
representing every denomination, who come for 
a night or so and pass on to their various fields, 
or take ship (as I shall do tomorrow) for Amer- 
ica or England. Across the table from where I 
sit are a young couple, trained in teaching the 
blind. They are starting an institution here for 



250 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

teaching and caring for the poor little blind chil- 
dren; next to them sits a dear old lady with a 
crown of silvery white hairs, nearly 80 years 
of age, a mother, whose two daughters won mar- 
tyrs' crowns at Ku Cheng. Next her sits dear 
Miss Johnson of the Presbyterian mission at 
Lien Chow, who was home on furlough when 
that awful tragedy occurred October 28th, 1905, 
when Mrs. Machle, little Amy, Mr. and Mrs. 
Peale, and Dr. Chestnut were murdered by law- 
less anti-foreign characters. Then we have Dr. 
Woodbridge of the Southern Presbyterian 
Church here, editing a Christian Chinese news- 
paper and preaching the gospel, and here is Dr. 
Cunningham of Yihsien, who last year treated 
17,924 patients. Dr. Shields and family have 
been in the room next to mine, and their dear 
little son sings so sweetly : " Dare to be a Dan- 
iel'' and "Throw Out the Lifeline ! " I loved 
to hear his little voice. They go to a remote mis- 
sion (American Baptists), located far up near 
the border of Thibet, where there is still fighting 
and unrest. May God protect them and spare 
the sweet little children is my prayer! 

Every denomination is represented here, and 
it is a tonic to come in touch with them as they 
gather for morning and evening prayers in the 
parlour where Mr. Edward Evans gives us a mes- 
sage from the Holy Word. They come and they 
go, and God's blessing rests with them and His 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 251 

"truth," through the efforts and lives of these 
His servants, " is marching on." The work is 
His, and " when the enemy shall come in like a 
flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a stand- 
ard against him." Are you doing your share? 
Are you willing to give to God your best ? Your 
gifts for China — the best you could give — are 
you putting those gifts into His outstretched 
hand ? Are you willing to say : " Here Lord, 
send me. I'll go where you want me to go, dear 
Lord." If you do, you will find Him, oh! so 
precious, and your life, oh, so sweet with Him 
for your guide! 

My furlough being about due, I had planned 
to go home by way of Palestine and see the 
blessed Holy Land, " where our dear Lord was 
crucified, who died to save us all," and praise 
Him where the shepherds fell at His feet in 
Bethlehem. But I must spell the word " disap- 
pointment " with an " h," for it is His " appoint- 
ment " for me to respond to the call for help in 
the cause of the China Propaganda. A cable- 
gram from our Board asks if it is possible for 
me to " come home direct route at once to assist 
in the China campaign," and I gladly go to be 
of service. But oh! the going is not easy from 
these dear people. We have those at Wei Hsien 
who are very dear to me, not only our dear for- 
eign missionaries and their sweet children, but 
our native Chinese friends, and my eyes fill with 



252 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

tears as I think of the love they showed me when 
I left them. They gave me beautiful silk ban- 
ners all embroidered with beautiful gold and sil- 
ver threads, " blessings, blessings," all around my 
name. And they gathered at my home, and 
when my chair passed through the long lines of 
dear Chinese Christians, I felt as I looked at 
their sad faces as though I were a hearse passing 
through. And I think of all those dear country 
village people with no one in my place to go and 
visit them. Just before I came away I made a 
trip away out to T'ien Yu Kou, the little moun- 
tain village where I was just before the riots, 
and the children gathered around me, at least 
fifty of them, their parents and others back of 
them filling the chapel, and sang " Jesus Loves 
Me," and listened while I told them about the 
little lad who gave his lunch to Jesus, all he had, 
his " five little loaves and two small fishes/' and 
one little girl sat with her little brother beside 
her who had just lost their mother, and their 
little faces were so pathetic. As I left that vil- 
lage that dear little girl followed my barrow, 
clutching in her little garment a pretty little red 
work-bag I had given her from the Christmas 
box. My teacher kept telling her to go back, but 
she kept saying : " I don't want Hoa Kuniang 
to go." Do you wonder that I think of that 
little darling out there and weep because I must 
go from these people ? Home is very sweet, and 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 253 

I love my dear ones at home, and I thank God 
that I shall soon see their dear faces again in this 
world, but the little girl clutching at that little 
red work-bag who " didn't want Hoa Kuniang 
to go/' is very deep in my heart, and the race she 
represents is my " heritage." 



APPENDIX 




Peki _ 
PaoTing-fu 
5 hunt e-f u 

4 Ts i n an-fu 

5 Wei-Hsien 

6 TengChou 

7 Chefoo 

8 TsmgTau 

9 Ichou-fu 

10 Yi-hsien 
ii Tsmingchou 
iz Hwau-Yuen 

13 NanKing 

14 Soochow 

15 Shanghai 
^^16 Hangchow 

7 Yuyiao 

'<( 1 8 N i n g p o 

j \\\ o Changteh 

20 Siangtan 

'f 2i Hengchow 

( 22 Chenchow 

23 TaoYuen 

24 Lienchou 

25 Canton 

26 Yeung Kong 

27 Shek Lung 

PINE 
Ml 



Map of China Presbyterian Missions. 
Wei Hsien Mission, Xo. 5, Shantung Province 



APPENDIX 



A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE CHINESE 
REVOLUTION 



BY CARL CROW 

Written Specially for the China Press (Shang- 
hai) 

LIKE many other great events, the Chinese 
Revolution began inauspiciously enough. 
The accidental explosion of a bomb in 
the Russian concession of Hankow of October 
9th, 191 1, caused a police investigation and re- 
vealed the existence of a revolutionary head- 
quarters, with elaborately prepared plans for the 
capture of Wuchang. The conspirators were ar- 
rested and handed over to the Viceroy 'Jm 
Cheng, who promptly executed them and had 
their heads photographed so that Peking might 
see by the pictures the promptness with which 
he suppressed all attempts to question the au- 
thority of the Son of Heaven. 

It was not unlike many other incidents of 
China's recent history, for many revolutionary 
257 



258 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

plots have been discovered and many revolution- 
ists have lost their heads. Usually the incident 
ended with the work of the executioner, and 
things went on much the same as before until 
another plot was discovered and there was an- 
other trip to the execution ground. No one 
knew better than the Manchus that revolution- 
ists never ceased to be dangerous until their 
heads were severed. 

But the Wuchang incident was different, 
though it did not appear so at first. The elab- 
orate headquarters indicated the presence of 
many other persons with revolutionary ideas, and 
Viceroy Jui set out at once in search of them. 
He and his officers remained up all night fol- 
lowing the explosion. Soldiers, merchants, 
scholars, idlers — anyone suspected by the Viceroy 
— were arrested and searched. A great many of 
them were found guilty, and the executioner did 
a good day's work before breakfast. The gates 
of the city were ordered closed and preparations 
made for a still more thorough search for sus- 
picious characters. 

While the tired executioner slept during the 
day, the people of Wuchang assembled in quiet 
but excited crowds and talked over the horrors 
of the previous night. The excitement grew 
more intense, and with the coming of darkness 
the tension snapped. A private soldier shot 
down the corporal who tried to search him for 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 259 

hidden cartridges, and his comrades joined him 
in attacks on other officers. The foreboding 
quiet of the day was broken. In a few minutes 
the city was full of rioting which long before 
midnight turned into revolt. Viceroy Jui fled 
through the rear of his yamen, and took refuge 
on a gunboat. General Li Yuan Hung, previ- 
ously an obscure colonel, led the disaffected sol- 
diers, and by midnight the army had been turned 
into a rebel force, which quickly put to the 
sword or drove across the river the few hun- 
dred Manchu troops and officials, who natu- 
rally declined to join in the movement. 

ARSENAL AND MINT CAPTURED 

The arsenal with its large store of arms and 
ammunition fell easily, as did the mint. The 
morning after the revolution dawned with the 
republican army of China in possession of Han- 
yang, Wuchang and Hankow, equipped with 
millions of rounds of ammunition and several 
million dragon dollars, freshly minted at the 
Imperial mint. Not a vestige of Manchu au- 
thority remained. Thousands of civilians imme- 
diately began enrolling their names as members 
of " The People's Army." As if by magic, new 
uniforms for the revolutionary army appeared. 

The authorities in Peking soon learned of the 
trouble. Viceroy Jui told about it in an official 



260 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

dispatch, and he was immediately severely cen- 
sured by imperial edict and told to recapture the 
place. Knowing more of the situation than the 
Peking authorities, he did not wait for the re- 
ply, but fled at once to Shanghai. More news 
reached Peking, where preparations were going 
on for a mobilization of the army of China, 
which would demonstrate to the world what an 
effective fighting machine the country had built 
up with a view to preventing just such outbreaks 
as this. Apparently the coincidence of the 
manoeuvres was a fortunate circumstance, for 
trains carrying soldiers and arms to the camp 
were at once sent to Hankow, the first force dis- 
patched being of 6,000 men, which number was 
soon doubled. 

The loyal soldiers who had been driven from 
Wuchang camped near Hankow, where a few 
days later there was a small skirmish, unimpor- 
tant so far as numbers go, but the easy success 
of the rebels gave them a great deal of confi- 
dence. The northern soldiers began arriving 
within a week, and by the latter part of October 
the two forces were in actual conflict. The revo- 
lutionary army in the meantime had grown to 
about 20,000 men, partly by enlistment and 
partly by the arrival of troops from the south. 

The fighting was chiefly confined to a small 
area back of the foreign concessions of Han- 
kow, extending from Kilometer Ten station to 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 261 

the Han River. During all of it the well-trained 
northern troops showed their superiority over 
the raw recruits. The latter suffered heavily in 
dead and wounded, but for everyone shot down 
there was always another ready to take his place, 
and the numbers in the people's army grew de- 
spite the heavy daily loss. By the middle of No- 
vember the rebels had been slowly driven back 
by the daily and nightly fights until none was 
left outside the Chinese city of Hankow, which 
with Hanyang and Wuchang was still held by 
the revolutionaries. 

REVOLUTION SPREADS 

While the fighting was going on in Hankow, 
the republican spirit spread rapidly through the 
Yangtsze valley, and it soon became apparent 
that in order to recover the loyalty of the sec- 
tion, nothing short of complete military occupa- 
tion by the Imperialists would be necessary. The 
Imperialists were powerless, and town after 
town and province after province went over to 
the republicans without a shot being fired. In 
many cases the transition from Manchu to Re- 
publican authority involved nothing more than 
a search through an abandoned yamen for the 
official seals. Sianfu, looked on as one of the 
strongholds of Manchu power, was one of the 
first to revolt, striking terror in the Forbidden 



262 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

City and greatly hampering the movement of 
troops to the South. This was in accordance 
with a plan which had been adopted many years 
before, for every movement of the revolution, 
despite its apparent disorder, was the result of 
plans which had been thought out long before the 
outbreak occurred. 

As rapidly as the movement spread in the 
south, the Peking authorities made frantic efforts 
to stop its progress. A full pardon promised to 
all who would lay down their arms resulted in 
nothing, and soon the Chinese people had the 
novel experience .of listening to imperial edicts 
in which the throne abjectly promised to reform. 
High officials, including several members of the 
imperial clan were dismissed from service, some 
of them with severe censure, and an attempt was 
made to secure the aid of more progressive offi- 
cials. Tang Shao Yi was recalled to the post of 
Minister of Communications and Yuan Shih-k'ai 
was implored to accept the position of Viceroy 
vacated by the desertion of Jui Cheng. He was 
rapidly promoted in power, and in a short time 
given complete control of the army and navy. 

The earlier edicts of apology and promise hav- 
ing resulted in nothing, an edict was issued on 
October 30th granting to the National Assembly 
full power to draft and adopt a constitution. 
This action on the part of the throne was doubt- 
less precipitated by demands from soldiers at 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 263 

Lwangchow, a place which was looked on as a 
loyal stronghold. Immediately on receipt of the 
edict, the Assembly adopted a constitution which 
guaranteed to the Chinese all the political rights 
which they had been vainly demanding for years. 
The constitution was incorporated in an edict, 
and to make it still more binding the Prince Re- 
gent, representing the infant Emperor, visited 
the Ancestral Temple, and took a solemn oath to 
uphold its conditions. The constitution left the 
Imperial Clan practically without power, and this 
concession, granted within a month after the 
outbreak of the revolt, showed how strong was 
the sentiment of republicanism. But the reform- 
ers in China had been deceived before by Manchu 
promises, and adoption of the constitution did 
not weaken the determination of the revolution- 
ists. 

SHANGHAI TURNS REPUBLICAN 

Soochow and Shanghai early became repub- 
lican cities, the fighting at both places being un- 
important, but the important position of Nanking, 
under General Chang Hsun, held out. The sym- 
pathies of the people were doubtless with the re- 
publicans, but General Chang stubbornly refused 
any overtures for the surrender of the city, and 
active preparations were made for an attack. 
Thousands of troops were enlisted in Shanghai 
and others brought North from Canton, Foo- 



264 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

chow, Ningpo and Hangchow were equipped and 
trained here and sent to Nanking. The bom- 
bardment of the place began in the latter part of 
November. There was a great deal of firing, but 
small loss of life, and General Chang soon saw 
that it would be useless for him to attempt to 
hold out against the republicans. On December 
i, he fled from the city with a small number of 
troops, and the republicans took possession. 

While the republicans were succeeding at 
Nanking, they met with reverses in the Wu-han 
cities. Slowly driven back into the Chinese city 
of Hankow, they made a desperate stand there, 
but the imperial general drove them out by set- 
ting fire to the city. The republican stronghold 
of Hanyang remained, but fell to the imperialists 
just before the republican success at Nanking. 

A provisional government had been established 
at Wuchang with General Li at its head, and at 
the time of the fall of Hanyang a number of del- 
egates from various southern provinces were on 
their way up the Yangtsze to take their seats in 
the provisional assembly. With Hanyang's cap- 
ture, Wuchang was greatly endangered, and the 
delegates returned to Shanghai. The Republican 
success of Nanking made that the logical loca- 
tion for the republican capital, and the provi- 
sional government was immediately set up there, 
with General Huang Hsing as generalissimo. 

This was the situation before the end of the 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 265 

second month after the outbreak. So many con- 
cessions had been made by the Manchus that but 
little remained as disputed points. They had re- 
tired almost completely from governmental af- 
fairs, and the only question which remained to 
be settled lay between a republic and a constitu- 
tional monarchy, and on both sides it was felt 
that this was too small a question to cause any 
further loss of life, when there was a possibility 
that it might be settled by conference. Besides, 
both Republicans and Imperialists were ham- 
pered by lack of funds. Foreign loans applied 
for by the Peking government had failed, and 
the voluntary contributions raised by both sides 
were not enough to meet all the demands of a 
military campaign. An armistice was agreed to 
in preparation for a conference, the Manchu au- 
thorities signifying their willingness to abide by 
any decision which might be reached. 

On November 15, Yuan Shih K'ai reached 
Peking, and after having been repeatedly urged 
to do so, accepted the premiership, immediately 
appointing a cabinet, which included but one 
Manchu. It was perhaps the most progressive 
cabinet in the history of China, up to that time, 
but though many of the members were Yuan's 
old friends and helpers, there was no alacrity 
about accepting the appointments, and for sev- 
eral weeks the new Premier worked practically 
single-handed. 



266 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

PEACE CONFERENCE 

In early December plans for a peace confer- 
ence were under discussion, and on December 8, 
H. E. Tang Shao Yi left Peking, as Peace Com- 
missioner of the Imperial government, with in- 
structions to meet a similar Peace Commis- 
sioner appointed by the republicans and arrange 
terms of settlement. The Imperial clan had 
paved the way for an agreement of this kind by 
the resignation, a few days before, of the Prince 
Regent. The edict which announced his resigna- 
tion placed on him the blame for the dissatisfac- 
tion of the people, and made arrangements to 
bring up the young Emperor under the joint 
guardianship of a Manchu and a Chinese. It 
was thought that this would remove the most 
serious objections to the proposed limited mon- 
archy. 

Reaching Hankow, Mr. Tang was informed 
that the Republicans preferred to discuss the 
matter in Shanghai, where he would meet Dr. 
Wu Ting-fang, their representative. He ar- 
rived here on a special steamer on December 
17th, and on the following day the two commis- 
sioners met in the Town Hall, and arranged for 
an extension of the armistice. At another meet- 
ing the startling announcement was made that 
Mr. Tang agreed with Dr. Wu that the monarchy 
which ruled China had failed and that a repub- 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 267 

lican form of government should be set up. Evi- 
dently Mr. Tang's action in agreeing with Dr. 
Wu created a sensation in Peking. His commis- 
sion was cancelled, and he held no more official 
interviews with Dr. Wu, though the two met un- 
officially almost daily at the residence of Mr. 
E. S. Little. A spirited exchange of telegrams 
followed between Dr. Wu and Premier Yuan, 
taking up the greater part of January. 

Dr. Sun Yat Sen's name had often been men- 
tioned in connection with the revolution, but lit- 
tle was known of his whereabouts. On Novem- 
ber 16 the China Press published a telegram 
from him, stating that he was in Paris and would 
come to China at once. He arrived in Shanghai 
on Christmas Day, 191 1, and took up residence 
in the French concession. The provisional as- 
sembly was then in session in Nanking, and at 
once elected Dr. Sun as the first Provisional 
President of the Republic of China. He went 
to Nanking, and was formally inaugurated on 
January 1. 

While Dr. Wu and Premier Yuan were ex- 
changing telegrams during January, extensive 
military preparations were going on at Nanking. 
The repeated rumours that the conflict would be 
ended by the abdication of the Imperial Clan 
did not deter the republicans from preparing for 
a decisive struggle if it became necessary. Many 
thousands of soldiers were enlisted in Canton, 



268 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

Shanghai and other places under republican con- 
trol and sent to Nanking, where they were 
drilled in preparation for a march on Peking. 

DECISIVE MESSAGE FROM FIELD 

There is little doubt but that during this period 
the most serious conflict was between factions 
of the Imperial Clan, some being willing to ac- 
cept what they thought to be inevitable and give 
up all power, while other insisted that there 
should be no surrender until made abso- 
lutely necessary. The issue was decided dur- 
ing the last few days in January by the re- 
ceipt of telegrams from practically all the Im- 
perial generals in the field urging the throne to 
arrange terms of peace, as further fighting could 
only result in more successes for the republicans. 
The telegram amounted to a demand from the 
imperial army for the abdication of the Emperor. 

After the receipt of this message, there was 
no longer any doubt about the issue. The terms 
between the throne and the Republican leaders 
were speedily agreed on, and the long-expected 
Edict of Abdication was published to the world 
on February 12." 

china's independence day 

October 10th, 19 12, the Chinese Republic cele- 
brated its first " Fourth of July." It was a 
great day at Peking. 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 269 

" We had a great day here yesterday (Octo- 
ber ioth). Think of a President's reception in 
China ! Three or four hundred foreigners of all 
nations and foreignized Chinese watched the 
President's review of about 10,000 troops, then 
ate a sumptuous foreign lunch, and the Presi- 
dent himself appeared in our midst while we 
gave him ' three cheers and a tiger.' Come out 
and see the new Republic." 

It was a great day at Wei Hsien. 

" On the first national holiday of the Repub- 
lic our college and schools joined in, and, in fact, 
were the most prominent features in the grand 
celebration and parade. The following day the 
schools of the city visited the compound in a 
body and showed the most cordial feeling to- 
wards us. The following day they sent their 
band to escort our students around to the differ- 
ent school officials, local assembly and political 
clubs of the city. The parade of the city together 
with the visits lasting between four and five 
hours by four hundred Christian students and 
teachers carrying banners and Republican flags, 
singing patriotic and Christian songs, made an 
impression on Wei Hsien city, such as it has 
never received before. The doors that have so 
long been closed in this conservative old city are 
wide open, and the people are inviting us to 
come and be friends with them." 



270 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 



HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE ! 

After the Revolution was over and success as- 
sured, General Hsu Pao Shan invited Rev. A. R. 
Saunders, a well-known missionary in China, to 
come to the camp where he had his one thousand 
army officers, and he said : " I want you to 
hold a service here. We cannot get all the army 
in. That would be impossible, but we will get 
in all the officers and thank Jesus for the suc- 
cess of this Revolution." When the thousand 
officers were all gathered in and Rev. Saunders 
came in to address them at this special invitation, 
the great General arose first and said : "I want 
to speak first. It is right to meet today and 
thank Jesus for the success of this Revolution. 
China would not be a Republic today if it were 
not for the missionaries who believe in Jesus, 
and we must thank Jesus now. Mr. Saunders 
knows what Jesus likes." And then the unheard- 
of thing occurred. Rev. Saunders led this vast 
gathering of Chinese officers in prayer and praise 
to Jesus, our great King. 

Never have we been able to preach in the Chi- 
nese army camps till now. You might go any- 
where else, but never there. Under the old 
Manchu rule, the soldiers were the roughest, 
most cruel and wicked anti- foreign people in 
China. And now behold them thanking Jesus ! 



NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 271 

From the farthest border, the Yunnan Prov- 
ince, the stronghold of Buddhism, comes this 
word. "Strange things are happening now all 
over China. The idols are being destroyed. Mud 
gods are being made into bricks. Bronze gods 
are being made into current coin." From other 
parts where the gospel has never yet had a foot- 
hold, the word comes : " Idols are being 
smashed. Temples locked up and the keeper 
gone off with the keys no one knows where, 
and no one cares. You look through the cracks 
and see the idols fallen to the ground, and the 
temples are the abode of moles and bats." 

Glorious fulfillment of prophecy! But, Chris- 
tian friends, now is the time to give them the 
only living and true God. They must have a re- 
ligion. No nation can exist without a religion. 
France tried it in 1789 and failed. " Righteous- 
ness exalteth a nation." Let us seize this great 
opportunity and give them the true religion, 
while they are ready for it. The time is now 
while they are in the receptive state. The steel 
when in a certain plastic state may receive the 
imprint of the finest lace. But when cooled and 
hardened, the hardest weapons could not make 
an impression. 

"O, Christ! Help Thy church to give China 
such faithful, willing, noble missionaries, and 
back them up with such good substantial sup- 



272 NEW THRILLS IN OLD CHINA 

port, that they may represent Thee, and that 
Thine own image, the face of the Master, may 
be imprinted upon China forever! 



THE END 



MAR 26 WW 



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